Parliament has passed the Legal Education Bill, 2025, marking a significant step toward reforming Ghana’s legal education system to improve access, fairness, and quality of training.
The legislation establishes a new Council for Legal Education and Training to regulate legal education and set curriculum standards across institutions.
A key provision of the Bill is the decentralisation of professional legal training, transferring it from the Ghana School of Law to accredited universities nationwide.
Also read: Ghana hosts inaugural Parliamentary Training Institutes network meeting
Under the new Legal Education Bill framework, a Law Practice Training Course will be introduced and delivered by approved universities to prepare eligible candidates for a National Bar Examination.
The reform is expected to ease congestion at the Ghana School of Law and expand opportunities for law graduates seeking professional qualification.
Speaking after passage of the Bill, Majority Leader Mahama Ayariga said the Bill fulfills a key campaign promise by the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).
“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 stated.
However, Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin criticised the government, arguing that while the reform is commendable, other major promises remain unfulfilled.
“All of us have participated. This is not a bill that is identified with a particular party… 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 said.
Despite political exchanges, both sides of the House acknowledged the importance of reforming legal education to make it more inclusive and accessible.
The new law is expected to reshape the legal training landscape in Ghana by broadening institutional participation and standardising professional legal education nationwide.