Nigerian Law School speak on the mass failure of students; "law students lied..."

Authorities of Nigeria Law School have
described the claims that about 4, 000 students
of the institution failed its August 2014 Bar Final
Examinations as untrue.
Some students of the school have in the past
few days embarked on protests over what they
described as mass failure in the final
examination at the Nigerian Law School which is
the main prerequisite for young lawyer
graduates to be called to the Bar .
The students had alleged that over 70 per cent
of those who wrote the exams in August failed
when the results were recently released by the
school .
The students blamed the mass failure on
Professor Olanrewaju Onadeko, Director General
of the School who they claimed gave
instructions that lots of scripts be marked down
for reasons they however failed to explain .
The students had consequently taken to the
social media to protest what they described as
the poor handling and marking of the Bar 2 final
exam while calling for a review of the exercise.
But while speaking to PM NEWS on Monday ,
Mrs. E . O Max - Uba , Secretary to the Council of
Legal Education and Director of Administration
of Nigeria Law School said contrary to the
claims of the students, 57. 01 per cent of those
who wrote the exam passed rightly .
She added that the Bar Examination is just like
any other professional examination which the
failure or pass rate varies from year to year.
A document made available to PM NEWS
indicated that a total of 5841 regular candidates
registered for the examination in the 2013/2014
academic year across the six campuses of the
Law School . A further breakdown of the
performance revealed that four students made
1st Class Honours while 96 students passed in
the Second Class (Upper Division ).
On the other hand , 620 students passed in the
Second Class (Lower Division) while 2610 or
44. 68 per cent of the students recorded ordinary
pass. Also, 501 students recorded conditional
pass because they have reference in one subject
while 1932 students failed the examination .
However, the failure rate was high among the
re- sit candidates with about 1168 out of 1335
students who registered failing the examinations
while 88 students recorded ordinary pass . Also ,
26 of the re - sit students recorded conditional
pass. Mrs . Max Uba told PM NEWS that the
failure rate was high among the re- sit students
because some of them are either working or
based outside the country .
The Secretary to the Council of Legal Education
who said the ongoing protest is being led by
some of the re -sit students noted that some of
them have sat for the examinations four times
without success because they refused to
participate in revision classes organised for
them prior to the examinations .
She dismissed claims of victimisation by the DG
of Law School who she said does not even
participate in marking of examination papers. In
the same vein, Mrs Max- Uba dismissed the
claims of victimisation of the students by
lecturers as she argued that the examination
papers are not usually marked by those who set
the examinations .
On whether the results will be reviewed , she
said any candidate may apply for review in
accordance with extant rules of the Council for
Legal Education .
She however said candidates who failed the
examination will only have the opportunity of a
re- sit next year .
Mrs. Max -Uba also informed PM NEWS that in
view of the poor performance of the re -sit
candidates at the August 2014 examinations , the
Board of Studies of the Council of Legal
Education has directed that henceforth, re- sit
candidates are to attend at least , eight weeks
compulsory revision classes at the Law School
to the be allowed to sit for the examinations .
According to her , details of the re -sit will be
announced soon.

pmnews