In Ghana, 93% failing the entrance exam in law schools

Ghanaian students denounce the high failure rate of entrance exams in law schools. They demonstrated Monday in the streets of Accra, the capital of the country.

The mass failure came on the back of a similar failure in the Ghana Bar exams a few months ago. The riot police used water and fired rubber bullets to disperse the protesters. Regina Amegah, one of the student leaders, expresses her anger “we were walking peacefully, but we only had a show of strength”.

According to students, the current system favors the country’s elite and excludes middle-class children. They claim a reform of this system. Last year, over 80% of students failed their entrance exams in law schools. This year, the failure rate has climbed to 93%.

Bar exams also had high failure rates. More than 90% of the students who passed the exams failed, which also caused an uproar. But Ghana’s Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo says it is a small group of professional lawyers who argue that “mass production” of lawyers would have implications for the quality of their service.