Tension has enveloped the Nigerian Law School over the mass failure recorded during the August 2014 Bar Final Examinations. While the students claim that about 4,000 of them failed the examinations, authorities of the institution put the figure at over 1,000.

Some students of the school have in the past few days embarked on protests over the mass failure, lamenting that it has put their future in jeopardy since lawyer graduates must pass out from the Law School before they can be called to the Bar.

The students alleged that over 70 per cent of those who wrote the exams in August failed when the results were recently released by the school. They blamed the mass failure on the Director General of the school, Prof. Olanrewaju Onadeko, claiming that he gave instructions that lots of scripts be marked down for reasons they however failed to explain. The students had consequently taken to the social media to protest what they described as the poor handling and marking of the Bar 2 final exam while calling for a review of the exercise.

Reacting to the development yesterday, Secretary to the Council of Legal Education and Director of Administration of Nigerian Law School, Mrs. E.O Max-Uba, said contrary to the claims of the students, 57.01 per cent of those who wrote the exam passed rightly.

She added that the Bar Examination is just like any other professional examination which the failure or pass rate varies from year to year.

A document made available to PM NEWS indicated that a total of 5,841 regular candidates registered for the examination in the 2013/2014 academic year across the six campuses of the Law School. A further breakdown of the performance revealed that four students made 1st Class Honours while 96 students passed in the Second Class (Upper Division).

On the other hand, 620 students passed in the Second Class (Lower Division) while 2,610 or 44.68 per cent of the students recorded ordinary pass. Also, 501 students recorded conditional pass because they have reference in one subject while 1,932 students failed the examination.

However, the failure rate was high among the re-sit candidates with about 1,168 out of 1,335 students who registered failing the examinations while 88 students recorded ordinary pass. Also, 26 of the re-sit students recorded conditional pass. Mrs. Max Uba told PM NEWS that the failure rate was high among the re-sit students because some of them are either working or based outside the country.

The Secretary to the Council of Legal Education who said the ongoing protest is being led by some of the re-sit students noted that some of them have sat for the examinations four times without success because they refused to participate in revision classes organised for them prior to the examinations.

She dismissed claims of victimisation by the DG of Law School who she said does not even participate in marking of examination papers. In the same vein, Mrs. Max-Uba dismissed the claims of victimisation of the students by lecturers as she argued that the examination papers are not usually marked by those who set the examinations.

On whether the results will be reviewed, she said any candidate may apply for review in accordance with extant rules of the Council for Legal Education.

She however said candidates who failed the examination will only have the opportunity of a re-sit next year.

Mrs. Max-Uba also informed PM NEWS that in view of the poor performance of the re-sit candidates at the August 2014 examinations, the Board of Studies of the Council of Legal Education has directed that henceforth, re-sit candidates are to attend at least, eight weeks compulsory revision classes at the Law School to the be allowed to sit for the examinations.

According to her, details of the re-sit will be announced soon.

•Adapted from a PM NEWS report. Photo shows Nigerian Law School DG, Prof. Olanrewaju Onadeko.