Most of Uganda’s universities have exhibited poor grades among law students due to a scarcity of experienced lawyers in the teaching profession, a legal expert has observed.
Many universities, according to Barnabas Tumusingizi, are offering law course without considerinf law experts and resources in terms of infrastructure, library and faculty, resulting in poor grades in universities.
“Now that we are in the digital age, we need internet bandwidth. Even if you do not have law books, you need resources which is quite expensive. So, how are universities prepared for that?” he asked.
Tumusingizi made the remarks during the handover of a consignment of law books, worth millions of shillings, to Makerere University School of Law. The ceremony took place at Sebalu and Lule Advocates law firm’s premises in Nakasero, Kampala on Friday.
Joseph Luswata, the law firm’s researcher, noted that the books will help students cite some cases and get insights into legal best practices today, since they have a full set of all English law reports from 1936 to 2020.
The records from the Law Development Center (LDC) for academic year 2019/2020 show that 70% of the 1,682 students that sat for the exams, partially failed with retakes. Additionally, 90% of the students failed the bar course.
“During our years, only 60 students could be admitted in the law school but these days you find over 500 students in a class, hence a drop in grades,” he noted. He added that lack of professional teaching standards also causes poor grade posting.
Although bad grades don’t directly make a bad lawyer, Tumusingizi reveals that the Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) in law school can affect your chances of passing the Bar examination, which a graduate should obtain to be enrolled as an advocate.
Starting in 1980, Tumusingizi’s law firm had only two partners without specialized lawyers, which is the opposite right now as they aim at having niche practices which respond to the current needs in the society.
“The law firm is one of the best in Uganda because we get specialised lawyers in various fields such as energy, oil and gas.” He said.
He called for specialization in law firms as he cited examples from countries like the United States of America (USA) who specialize in different categories, consequently making them more advanced than those in Africa.
He advised the University to employee law firm lawyers to impart practical knowledge to students.
Christopher Mbazira, the Principal School of Law at Makerere University, commended the law firm for its achievement in 40 years, noting that many law firms in Europe and USA, which have structures conscript small national firms and look for lawyers, who have talent and build a practice that competes with multi-national law firms.
Mbazira lauded the law firm for providing services in a professional manner and engaging in ethical practices.
He, however, stressed that the legal education offered to law students of this era is challenging because experienced lawyers don’t want to go back and teach in the universities.
Mbazira rallied lawyers to support the law school, saying technology innovations are a result of partnership between the law industry and universities.