The National Alliance of Law Students is opposing a proposed one-year “Pre-Bar Course” for final-year LLB students, saying it is “burdensome, legally questionable and insensitive” to the realities of graduates under the new Legal Education Act, 2026.

In a press release issued on Saturday (13 June), NALS, which represents law students and recent graduates across Ghana, said it supports the broad goals of Act 1170 to decentralize legal training and expand access. But it strongly rejected aspects of the transitional arrangements announced by the Director of Legal Education and Director of the Ghana School of Law.

“The justification advanced for the introduction of the Pre-Bar Course is not based on any demonstrated academic deficiency on the part of students,” the group said. “Rather, it is premised on the inability of the relevant regulatory institutions to operationalize the new legal education framework.”

NALS argued the extra year would force thousands of students to pay additional tuition, accommodation and transport costs “merely because the Council for Legal Education and Training has not yet been constituted.”

It also said many students have already completed courses proposed for the Pre-Bar programme, including Company Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution and Commercial Law. Requiring them to retake those courses, NALS said, amounts to “a gross waste of educational resources, time, and financial investment.”

The alliance warned the proposal risks undermining Article 23 of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, which requires administrative bodies to act fairly and reasonably. It added that the Pre-Bar programme appears to lack a clear statutory basis in Act 1170, which it said envisages legal education, law practice training, a national exam and call to the bar, but not an additional mandatory year.

“Rather than reducing barriers, it creates new barriers. Rather than reducing costs, it increases costs. Rather than accelerating access, it delays access,” NALS stated.

To protect students while achieving Act 1170’s objectives, NALS proposed 10 alternatives. They include automatic waivers for previously completed courses, transfer of credits, a short bridging semester instead of a full year, and deferring the new training regime to January 2027 to allow time for the Council for Legal Education and Training to be constituted.

The group also called for “grandfathering” of final-year students graduating in 2026 to proceed directly into professional training, and for interim accreditation of existing Ghana School of Law campuses.

NALS is urging the Attorney-General, Chief Justice, General Legal Council, Ghana School of Law, Ministry of Education and GTEC to “urgently reconsider the proposed transitional arrangements” and engage students and law faculties before any final decisions.

“The future of legal education in Ghana must be built on principles of fairness, accessibility, legality, academic excellence, and respect for the legitimate expectations of students,” said NALS Convenor Frank Afful.

The Legal Education Act, 2026 (Act 1170) was passed to reform professional legal training in Ghana after years of bottlenecks that left many LLB graduates unable to enter the Ghana School of Law.