Controversy trails Bar exam

Widespread dissatisfaction has continued to trail the Bar Part II results released last week by the Council of Legal Education, the body overseeing the programme of the Nigerian Law School (NLS). The candidates’ performance is believed to be the worst in the annals of the Law School. More than 4,000 of the over 5,840 students that took the Bar exam reportedly got poor grades. The unsuccessful students are requesting for a review of the results, reports WALE AJETUNMOBI.

The Council of Legal Education last week released the results of the Bar Part II examination for the 2013/2014 academic session. But the law students who sat for the exam held in August are not happy with the results.

Of the over 5,840 graduates of law from various universities that sat for the examination in four campuses of the Nigerian Law School (NLS), less than 2,000 reportedly passed. The results  appear to be the worst since the council was created in 1962.

The council, under the Legal Education Act, has the statutory responsibility of training law students before they are called to the Bar.

Before the results were released, majority of the law students were optimistic. In preparation for the Bar ceremony in November, a good number of them have purchased wigs and gowns. A host of others have booked for return flights to Abuja ahead of the Call to Bar.

However, many were disappointed when the results were released. The students’ optimism was punctured, after many of them came out with poor grades. It was alleged that more than 70 per cent of the candidates failed.

CAMPUSLIFE gathered that, of the 5,840 candidates, only four students graduated from the NLS with First Class. It was also gathered that 96 made Second Class (Upper Division). The rest made Second Class (Lower Division), Pass, Conditional Pass while others failed outrightly.

Given the mass failure, it is expected that the unsuccessful candidates will re-take the examination with thousands of fresh law graduates that will enrol for the Bar programme next month. The affected candidates are dissatisfied with the unfavourable outcome, with many of them urging the council to review the results.

Some of the NLS officials, who spoke to CAMPUSLIFE, attributed the woeful performance to candidates’ negligence. They said most of the candidates did not take their studies seriously as many of them travelled frequently, abandoning their studies.

A 2010 graduate of the Law School, Jim Opaleke, disagreed with the notion that the candidates were ill-prepared for the examination. He said: “I am not convinced that such a mass failure should be attributed to the level of preparation by students. I am fortified in the belief that when an examiner sets an examination, where over 50 per cent of his students fail, it clearly shows that such an examiner has done a very poor job. It is an indictment on the entire system. Until we realise that the reputation of an institution is not improved by how difficult it is to graduate from it, we will continue to miss the point of the essence of quality examination.”

Contrary to the claim of mass failure, the Secretary to the council, Mrs E.O. Max-Uba, said 57.01 per cent of the graduates passed the examination. She spoke to the PM News on Monday.

The unsuccessful candidates and some, who are dissatisfied with their grades, are lamenting the outcome, requesting the NLS Director-General, Mr Olarenwaju Onadeko, to review the result. Some of them spoke to this reporter on telephone, pleading anonymity for fear of being profiled.

One of them, who simply identified himself as Justus, said: “I finished from the Lagos Campus and I remember the day that Onadeko came to the school on an official visit, where he made a statement that there would be strict examination rule to overhaul the system and to restore the standard of the Law School. If he wanted to do this, he should have concentrated on improving the crumbling infrastructure on the campuses, especially in Lagos that is battling accommodation challenges.”

A female student said the council graded the candidates according to their scores in the subject offered. “If one has grade A in four courses and grade D in one subject, he will be automatically graded to a pass grade. This system of grading is unjust and needs to be reviewed.”

The system is corrupt, says another unsuccessful student. He said: “When you consider the years of study, the resources and the effort put in, one cannot but weep. Some of us have not failed any exam in our lives before. This is evidence that the system is corrupt. The ideal thing is to review the results.”

A candidate at the Enugu Campus, who passed in the Bar exam, said: “I am not happy with my grade. They gave me a pass and God knows that I studied hard. There was no day that I missed lectures. But Onadeko came with the intention to fail students. They allotted 50 minutes for multi-choice question model, which should normally be answered in one hour. Besides, the questions were not difficult ones. All had been taught in class. That 4,000 students failed raises a lot of questions.”

A candidate at the Abuja Campus, who simply identified herself as Ronke, said: “In every exam, there are always people who do not prepare. Is it not ridiculous that, despite paying N300,000 for the Bar programme, the mental and psychological stress in the last one year, a whopping 4,000 candidates were said to have ill-prepared for the examination? This cannot be true. There is something wrong somewhere, and if justice must be done, the results have to be reviewed.”

CAMPUSLIFE could not reach the NLS Director-General at the time of this report.

Meanwhile, the NLS has fixed November 25 for the successful students to be called to the Bar. In an online statement, the NLS said the event, which is normally held for two or three days, will only be held for one day.

While the successful candidates are preparing to take the Bar oath, their unsuccessful colleagues are keeping their arms crossed, hoping that, one way or the other, the result will be reviewed.

A management staff at Lagos Campus, who pleaded anonymity, blamed the students for their woeful performance. He said the students were looking for cheap mark after reading unapproved materials for the exam.

He said: “Nobody can mark down the students. Whatever they got is what they deserve. The marking process is not individual but a conference method that ensures every candidate’s script is seen by all examiners. Computer does the final grading. We have mass failure because students are no longer reading the recommended textbooks. Most of them prefer to buy law materials being sold at gate and tutorial centres.

“Many of them did not even know we are operating a new curriculum. They read irrelevant materials for the exam and they failed. How many of them have come forward to call for the review of their scripts? They are interested in cheap results. Law School won’t give bazaar marks to students, because we don’t want to compromise quality. If anyone feels he was unjustly graded, let him come forward to state his case.”