LDC should leverage its students, alumni as key public relations assets

On February 7, 2024, the Law Development Centre (LDC) released examination results for the Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice, commonly known as the Bar Course for Academic Year 2022/2023.  Only 33 percent of students passed the Bar Course on ‘first attempt’. The rest of 67 percent were to either sit supplementary exams or repeat the entire Bar Course. This performance was not significantly different from the previous year 2022/2023 performance of 44 percent.

The release of LDC results is historically characterised by animosity, except that this experience gets more amplified with the proliferation of social media activism/advocacy.

Since the release of results, there has been calls for an #Ldcexhibition to mimic the social media exhibitions for the health sector and more recently Parliament. The call for an LDC exhibition was tried by previous students albeit unsuccessfully, but it’s largely a call for more transparency and accountability for LDC processes that culminate into results.

In the social media space, a number of frustrated colleagues have also seized the opportunity to cast a spectre of dark cloud on the entire institution. Since the release of results, social media is awash with different kinds of accusations and counter-accusations against key members of staff of the LDC without any verifiable facts. 

I intimated to a colleague recently that where the LDC is being accused for ‘cooking marks’, exchanging marks for sex, and other acts, we are all losers, because it is easy for anyone to imagine that my performance and your performance are a result of the above circumstances, and at the end, these accusations could easily devalue our hard-earned accomplishments. It is not understandable why students take to social media to ‘negatively’ vent their frustration yet the institution has an elaborate mechanism of handling complaints.

From psychology, it’s evident that different individuals handle frustration differently, and lately, social media has become an arena for expressing negative emotions. Additionally, social media has proved to be a key platform for galvanizing the public towards critical reform. It is thus not surprising that social media continues to be used as a key platform for calls for reform at the LDC.

LDC is a high-stakes institution of learning. Right from orientation, students are reminded of the historical challenges of student performance and argued to be cautious of falling victims.

In fact, the pursuit for the Bar Course is compared to a ‘lion’s hunt’, where the faint-hearted may not enlist for the expedition or if they dared, could emerge heavily bruised. The LDC is such a place one must be prepared for when they enrol. Throughout my time at the LDC, I came to deeply appreciate the extensive support provided by Professional Assistants (Lecturers) and other staff members to ensure students receive the utmost quality of education.

I witnessed extreme acts of support to students by their Professional advisors, including organized coaching sessions, in-person conversations, and unscheduled consultations, etc. Despite criticisms directed towards the institution, a significant number of students pass with distinction.

This same LDC where 67 percent of students failed, another 33 percent passed on first sitting – a fact which the ‘netizens’ never explain. As a student who has gone through the LDC, there is a lot the LDC is doing that is shrouded by the negativity that finds a lot of prime time on social media.

The LDC must begin to think about how best to work with a strong alumni network to speak to the good the LDC is or has been. It is not possible that everyone who has passed through the LDC has achieved their performance by exchanging something!

This may not, however, preclude the calls and need for reform around particular aspects of examination processes to increase transparency and accountability. Otherwise, all of us must congratulate the LDC thus far and expect better even next year!

Dr. Chrispus Mayora is a Lecturer & Health Economist at Makerere University School of Public Health.