A former Director of the Ghana School of Law, Kwaku Ansa-Asare, has cautioned that expanding access to legal education under the new Legal Education Bill must be accompanied by strict quality assurance measures.
Speaking on Adom FM’s morning show Dwaso Nsem, he expressed concern that without proper oversight, some aspiring lawyers might bypass rigorous training.
“Some of them will become lawyers and won’t even be seen at any law faculty or law training centre. They will use money to pass through the law school. It will become very sad for us,” he said. “Most of them are coming to be lawyers without any due process. I know many are happy about the news, but we must think about quality assurance.”
Mr. Ansa-Asare suggested limiting the number of students admitted by individual faculties to maintain standards.
“Left to me alone, no faculty should take more than the expected number. I wish they would take just 200 people. This year, all together, we can take 4,000 and then give the majority to the law school, especially first-years, and see how it goes,” he added.
He also stressed the role of law faculties in monitoring the quality of graduates.
“If we are able to deal with quality assurance issues, the law faculty will turn into the police to police the system. If we leave it only to regulatory bodies like GTEC, the General Legal Council, or the Council for Legal Education and Training, they alone can’t do it. But if we all come together and support this process, we can ensure the quality of lawyers we want to produce under this new change.”
Parliament recently passed the Legal Education Bill, which is now awaiting presidential assent. The legislation ends the Ghana School of Law’s long-standing monopoly over professional legal training and opens the space for accredited universities across the country to offer the Law Practice Training Course.
Under the new framework, a Council for Legal Education and Training will be established to regulate legal education and standardise curricula nationwide, preparing law graduates for the National Bar Examination.
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