Why 90 % of lawyers failed LDC exams
LDC has continued to register a high failure rate over the years. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
Twenty per cent of the lawyers totally failed and have since been discontinued.
- The LDC director, Mr Frank Nigel Othembi, said the pass rate has declined mainly due to the global effects of Covid-19 pandemic.
Ninety per cent of lawyers who sat for the academic year 2019/2020 Bar course exams at the Law Development Centre (LDC) have failed, results released last Wednesday showed.
Information obtained from the LDC showed that a total of 1,682 lawyers sat for the exams, with 70 per cent partially failing due to retakes.
Twenty per cent of the lawyers totally failed and have since been discontinued.
The LDC director, Mr Frank Nigel Othembi, said the pass rate has declined mainly due to the global effects of Covid-19 pandemic.
He also attributed the high failure rate to many students not being subjected to pre-entry examinations.
“We have registered a decline in performance compared to the last academic year that can be attributed to challenges of Covid-19 pandemic and online learning in third term. Students not subjected to the LDC pre-entry examination, which was suspended in 2019-this is the first group of Bar course students admitted without undergoing the pre-entry examination,” Mr Othembi said.
“A number of the students were unable to cope with the academic demands of the Bar course. Globally, the Bar course is demanding, gruelling and full time. Some students did not give it due focus,” he added.
However, even in the previous years when students were subjected to pre-entry exams, there was still a high failure rate.
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Mr Othembi also students who failed more than three of the five core subjects, who have been discontinued from the Bar course, may apply for re-admission in a subsequent academic year.
To those who did not out rightly pass (70 per cent), Mr Othembi said they are eligible to sit supplementary examinations (orals commencing June 14).
For the first time, the results of this year’s lot have been classified with first class, second class upper and lower, pass, supplementary, special and fail/discontinued.
The 10 per cent that passed from Kampala and Mbarara campus will graduate on Friday under a virtual ceremony.
While appearing before the Legal and Parliamentary Committee in 2018, then Justice minister Kahinda Otafiire told legislators that as government, they tasked LDC to explain why there was a high failure rate.
Mr Otafiire said they concluded that the failure rate was a result of large student numbers.
However, MPs rejected his arguments, insisting that pre-entry exams are not necessary in admission of students to LDC.
Then committee chairman Jacob Oboth-Oboth said pre-entry exams cannot be used to measure the quality of students, adding that they were simply introduced because LDC is struggling with space constraints to accommodate students.
