Lawyer and Professor of Accounting, Stephen Kwaku Asare, popularly known
as Kwaku Azar, has criticised the examining body responsible for the
Ghana Law School entrance examination for demonstrating a lack of
understanding of how examinations are evaluated and interpreted
following the mass failure recorded this year.
The public intellectual thinks that regulators of legal education in
Ghana “are completely uninformed about the concept of curving an exam
and, therefore, have no business being in the business of interpreting
examination scores,” urging all students to boycott the Ghana Law School
and all Law Faculties until the anomaly is corrected.
“When you take a look at the exam scores, you realize that the problem
is mechanically applying 50% as the passing score on an exam where 93%
scored less than 50%.
The problem then is not that only 128 out of 1820 passed. The problem
is that the regulators are completely uninformed about the concept of
curving an exam and, therefore, have no business being in the business
of interpreting examination scores,” he explained in a social media
post.
Prof Asare notes that given that the highest score in the recently held
examination was 65, a proper analysis of it will show that all the
students passed the exam, or have shown that they are capable of
continuing their legal education.
He finds the exam needless and non-diagnostic, insisting that the
technical proficiency of the students can be established using their LLB
degrees.
“I will dismiss any regulators and dissolve the regulatory body that
deliberated and concluded that it is reasonable to have this 128/1820.
They lack the technical proficiency needed to do the work that they are
paid to.
All students should boycott the GSL and all Law Faculties until this anomaly is corrected…,” he concludes.
In the 2019, Ghana School of Law entrance examination, only 128 out
1820 passed, prompting many to criticise the regulators for deliberately
failing students pointlessly. But the Chief Justice has always
maintained that she will not superintend over the mass production of
lawyers.
The General Legal Council headed by the Chief Justice is the body
responsible for legal education in Ghana. Many have called for its
dissolution and replacement with a much more progressive body that will
ensure that legal education is much more available to Ghanaians.
Full Post of Prof Asare below:
When you take a look at the exam scores, you realize that the problem
is mechanically applying 50% as the passing score on an exam where 93%
scored less than 50%.
The problem then is not that only 128 out of 1820 passed. The problem
is that the regulators are completely uninformed about the concept of
curving an exam and, therefore, have no business being in the business
of interpreting examination scores.
As the highest score is 65, use the simple curve of adding 35 to that
score and to all the scores. This simple curve will show that all the
students exceed the 50% threshold or demonstrated the technical
proficiency needed to continue with their legal education.
That outcome, of course, should not come as a surprise as the students
have the LLB. In fact, the exam is superfluous and that technical
proficiency should have been inferred from the possession of their
degrees.
As it is, someone who scored 49.5% is deemed to lack the technical
proficiency to continue with her legal education and must find something
else to do or hang around for one more year to write the same
non-diagnostic exam. It is hard to find something more senseless than
this.
I will dismiss any regulators and dissolve the regulatory body that
deliberated and concluded that it is reasonable to have this 128/1820.
They lack the technical proficiency needed to do the work that they are
paid to.
All students should boycott the GSL and all Law Faculties until this anomaly is corrected.
Da Yie!
