LDC failures a national tragedy
May 05, 2009
ACCORDING to the results released by the Law Development Centre last week, only 64 students out of 405 passed all the papers in the Bar course. Among them were two former ministers and a former boss of the Internal Security Organisation.
ACCORDING to the results released by the Law Development Centre last week, only 64 students out of 405 passed all the papers in the Bar course. Among them were two former ministers and a former boss of the Internal Security Organisation.
Established in 1968, LDC is the only institution in Uganda mandated to admit graduate lawyers for a diploma in legal practice. No lawyer can practise as an advocate in Uganda without this diploma.
A failure rate of 84% is alarming, especially given the fact that LDC has a monopoly. One senior lecturer resigned because he refused to remark the papers.
As an official at LDC has correctly observed: It is not possible that such a failure rate can entirely be the fault of the students.
Instead of remarking the papers and lowering the standards, there is need for a commission of inquiry to establish why students failed in such large numbers.
Have standards gone down in the universities they graduated from? The universities in the country that offer law courses are Makerere University, Uganda Christian University Mukono, Islamic University in Uganda, Uganda Pentecostal University and Nkumba University.
Or is there something wrong with the LDC management, the academic performance of the lecturers or the discipline of the students? In the past, when half the candidates failed at LDC, an investigation chaired by the education permanent secretary, Francis Lubanga, was instituted. However, its findings and recommendations were never made public.
The present crisis calls for a fresh investigation; and its findings must be made public as a matter of urgency and in the national interest.
With Makerere University’s academic rating plummeting, there is need to point out to the local and international public what the problem is with Uganda’s educational institutions and take measures to address to the shortcomings.
LDC’s results are not only a tragedy to the individual students who failed but to the nation at large.
Established in 1968, LDC is the only institution in Uganda mandated to admit graduate lawyers for a diploma in legal practice. No lawyer can practise as an advocate in Uganda without this diploma.
A failure rate of 84% is alarming, especially given the fact that LDC has a monopoly. One senior lecturer resigned because he refused to remark the papers.
As an official at LDC has correctly observed: It is not possible that such a failure rate can entirely be the fault of the students.
Instead of remarking the papers and lowering the standards, there is need for a commission of inquiry to establish why students failed in such large numbers.
Have standards gone down in the universities they graduated from? The universities in the country that offer law courses are Makerere University, Uganda Christian University Mukono, Islamic University in Uganda, Uganda Pentecostal University and Nkumba University.
Or is there something wrong with the LDC management, the academic performance of the lecturers or the discipline of the students? In the past, when half the candidates failed at LDC, an investigation chaired by the education permanent secretary, Francis Lubanga, was instituted. However, its findings and recommendations were never made public.
The present crisis calls for a fresh investigation; and its findings must be made public as a matter of urgency and in the national interest.
With Makerere University’s academic rating plummeting, there is need to point out to the local and international public what the problem is with Uganda’s educational institutions and take measures to address to the shortcomings.
LDC’s results are not only a tragedy to the individual students who failed but to the nation at large.