Parliament Passes Legal Education Bill, 2025, to Reform Ghana’s Law Training

Parliament has passed the Legal Education Bill, 2025, ushering in major reforms for Ghana’s legal education system.

The legislation establishes a Council for Legal Education and Training tasked with regulating legal education and setting curriculum standards across institutions.

A central feature of the Bill is the transfer of professional legal education from the Ghana School of Law to accredited universities. Under this framework, approved universities will offer a Law Practice Training Course to prepare candidates for the National Bar Examination.

Speaking on the parliamentary floor, Majority Leader Mahama Ayariga highlighted that the Bill fulfills the National Democratic Congress (NDC)’s promise to enhance fairness, equity, and access in legal education.

“As has been typical of the NDC, promises made are delivered. We promised law students that if they vote for us, we will carry out reforms that will ensure equity, fairness and access to legal education,” he said.

In contrast, Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin criticized the NDC, noting that while legal education reform is important, the government has yet to fulfill other key campaign promises.

“All of us have participated. This is not a bill that is identified with a particular party. I concede that indeed they made it a campaign promise. Mr Speaker, however, they equally promised that they were going to set up a bank for women. We are done with year one, year two, we have not seen the Women Bank,” he stated.

The Bill is seen as a milestone in modernizing legal education while expanding opportunities for aspiring lawyers in Ghana.