Published: Friday | May 7, 2017 | Rowen A. Johnson
The Office of the Vice President, African Cultural Renaissance Movement (A.C.R.M.)
Alfred McPherson, LLB - Dean Faculty of Law, UTech, Ja
Graduates, as well as the current batch of final year
Law students have been handed a major boost, as the University of Technology,
Jamaica recently announced that it will be conducting special law revision classes
for those students with intentions of taking the Norman Manley Law School
entrance examination. Currently, graduates from the UTech, Ja Bachelor of Laws
Programme are required to sit an entrance examination to gain entry in to the Norman
Manley Law School.
The announcement comes in light of the fact that since the
inception of UTech, Ja’s law programme about a decade ago, graduates have
found it increasingly difficult to matriculate to the Norman Manley Law School
due to this entrance exam.
This issue is
compounded by the fact that all graduates from the University of West Indies’
Bachelor of Laws programme are granted automatic admission to Norman Manley Law
School, a practice that has been decried as discriminatory by current Dean of
the Faculty of Law, Mr. Alfred McPherson, LLB. Mr. McPherson in a Gleaner
article titled “UTech wants alternative to Norman Manley Law School” published
in 2015 explained that efforts to have automatic admission to the Norman Manley
Law School granted for a number of UTech, Ja students has proven futile.
Promotional from UTech, Ja Faculty of Law
He went on to argue that the long term solution for the increasing
number of students desirous of a space at the Norman Manley Law School would be
to build another law school in the island. In the short term however, McPherson
recommended that automatic admission for UWI Law Graduates be discontinued and an
entrance examination be mandated for all students from all law faculties.
McPherson’s recommendations also echoed those of his
predecessor, well respected attorney Professor Oswald Harding, who too shared
the opinion that the current situation was discriminatory, and proposed the
establishment of more law schools within the island.
It remains to be seen whether the powers that be will ever
yield to such a proposition, however, the effort being made by UTech, Ja to
prepare students for the entrance examination is a good measure, that should be
lauded; albeit, still only a stop gap for the greater issue at hand.
The first set of classes will be held at the Dome Street
campus of UTech, Ja in Montego Bay on the weekends of June3 and 4, and again on
June 10 and 11. The second set of classes will be at the Papine Campus on the
weekends of June 17 and 18, and June 24 and 25.
This article was
adapted from a post in the Jamaica Observer, “UTech holds special classes”
published May 7, 2017.
Link to original article : http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/utech-holds-special-law-classes_98053?profile=1373
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