Law student sues over increase in number of exam questions without additional time
A Kenya School of Law student has sued the Council of Legal Education for increasing the number of questions tackled in the final examinations without adding the time slated for sitting the entire paper.
Mr Nyabira Oguta, who said he filed the suit on behalf of the rest, faulted CLE of changing the structure of the final examination conducted in the institution in an unlawful manner.
Through lawyer Jason Ogoti, the student argues that the decision is a total breach of their legitimate expectation since the guide to the bar examination distributed to all the students does not indicate anywhere that they would be required to tackle five questions.
Mr Ogoti claimed that CLE’s board has not been reconstituted as ordered by the court in April yet it has passed that drastic change to the way students are to do their final examinations at the end of the year.
“The Council has taken the initiative while illegally in office hence the students will unfairly be subjected to a directive that has been passed by illegal office bearers,” Mr Ogoti said.
NEW GUIDE
In the case documents, the law student claimed that upon admission on February, everyone was given a students’ guide to the bar examination and upon perusal at that time, it only indicated that they were to sit for an exam in November.
The guide also indicated that they would be tested on all nine subjects taught at KSL but it did not mention anywhere that students were going to tackle five questions.
He accused CLE of publishing and circulating a new guide to the bar examination just three months before it and indicated that they would be required to answer five questions instead of four without a corresponding increase in time.
“The action of CLE especially at this particular time, late into the academic year, serves to unsettle the minds of the students and can negatively affect the performance of the students during final examinations,” Mr Oguta said.
The student wants the decision to be quashed and that the Council be compelled to have the current academic class answer to only four questions as it has always been.
