New legal education admissions may revive entrance exams — Old Tafo MP
Old Tafo MP Vincent Ekow Assafuah has questioned whether admission procedures under Ghana’s new legal education framework could effectively reintroduce the entrance examination system that Parliament recently abolished.
The concern follows the issuance of interim directives by the Director of Legal Education, Professor Raymond Atuguba, outlining transitional arrangements under the Legal Education Act, 2026 (Act 1170), which abolished the entrance examination previously administered by the Independent Examinations Committee (IEC) for admission into professional legal training.
Under the new framework, final-year LLB students and backlog graduates seeking to become lawyers will first undertake a Pre-Bar Course covering theoretical subjects before progressing to a Law Practice Training Programme, sitting a National Bar Examination and eventually being called to the Bar.
However, Ekow Assafuah, in a statement on Saturday, June 13, 2026, said aspects of the directive leave critical questions unanswered, particularly regarding how universities will admit students into the new Pre-Bar programme.
The directive states that admissions will be determined by individual institutions in accordance with their academic rules, admission policies, capacity considerations and regulatory requirements.
According to the lawmaker, that provision could create circumstances in which institutions adopt admission mechanisms that resemble the entrance examinations the new law was intended to eliminate.
“Take KNUST as an example. Admission into its LLB programme is conducted through an entrance examination. If KNUST or any other institution chooses to apply a similar admission model for entry into the Pre-Bar Course, would this not amount to the reintroduction of an entrance examination by another name?” Assafuah said in a statement issued on Saturday.
He argued that if the entrance examination regime has been abolished by law, institutions should not be permitted to establish admission processes that could produce the same outcome.
“If the entrance examination regime has truly been abolished, why should institutions be allowed to devise admission mechanisms that could effectively produce the same result?” he asked.
Assafuah further cited the Supreme Court’s decision in Asare v. Attorney-General & General Legal Council (2017), which held that administrative directives cannot override statutory provisions.
“The Court emphasized that rights, obligations, and procedures established by legislation cannot be altered through administrative directives, circulars, or policy decisions,” he said.
“Consequently, any admission mechanism introduced under these transitional arrangements must remain strictly within the confines of the Legal Education Act, 2026 (Act 1170), and cannot, whether directly or indirectly, recreate requirements that Parliament has abolished.”
The MP said the issue was particularly important because thousands of students and graduates would be affected by the transition to the new legal education system.
He also raised concerns about how backlog students would be integrated into the new regime, noting that the directive states they will undertake the balance of required foundational theoretical courses before progressing to the practical phase of training.
“What exactly does this mean?” Assafuah asked.
“How will universities determine which courses a particular student has already completed? Will students who studied similar subjects during their LLB programmes be compelled to repeat them? Will exemptions be granted? How will uniformity be maintained across institutions?”
He said these questions remained unresolved and called for further clarification from authorities overseeing the implementation of the reforms.
Assafuah indicated that he would continue engaging stakeholders and would issue a more comprehensive statement in the coming days addressing what he described as the legal, policy and practical concerns arising from the implementation of the new legal education framework.
Source:lovinghananews.com
