Friday, March 29, 2024

ZIALE should not be blamed for poor students results

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Zambia Institute of Advanced Legal Education (ZIALE) Lecturer Doris Mwiinga congratulates Sandra Wamulume during the post-graduate diploma in legislative drafting at ZIALE
Zambia Institute of Advanced Legal Education (ZIALE) Lecturer Doris Mwiinga congratulates Sandra Wamulume during the post-graduate diploma in legislative drafting at ZIALE

Lawyer, Tutwa Ngulube has said that the Zambia Institute for Advanced Legal Education should not be blamed for poor students results. Mr. Ngulube said that the quality of students coming from Universities leaves much to be desired hence their failure to pass bar exams.

Mr Ngulube told ZNBC News that ZIALE should not compromise standards to accommodate students that are half baked.

But, United States based law professor Kenneth Mwenda has questioned the quality of lecturers at ZIALE. Professor Mwenda says those teaching at ZIALE need to get additional academic qualifications.

Professor Kenneth Mwenda said that being appointed State counsel is not enough to teach law students.

Only 4 out of 384 students who sat for the Zambia Institute of Advanced Legal Education (ZIALE) 2017 final intake examinations will be admitted to the bar.

And the Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) is disappointed at the number of students who failed the examinations.

Last year ZIALE had a high number of people admitted to the bar, but Lusaka lawyer Dickson Jere explained, early in the year, that ZIALE registered the highest number of students sitting for examinations last academic year, and as such it recorded the highest pass rate, as well as a record high failure rate.

38 COMMENTS

  1. This is complete nonsense. This is total stupidity and why Zambia is lagging behind in development. 4 out of 384 pass rate represents hardly 1% student pass rate. This shows direct failure of an institution and its lecturers and you can not tell me law graduates from universities across the world not just UNZA have failed. Who on this forum can take their children to a school that only 1% students pass in their right mind? This is a means to curtail the legal profession. Stop saying students are dull and taking their k15,000 fees. You stole 380 x k15,000 from these poor students and you want to blame them not the lecturers. Do you have brains?

    • No. They dont have brains. Could they have been admitted to the bar themselves if their lecturers were this hash and mean with marks. Law is not science law bane nichikwakwa and people should pass in numbers and not such a negligible pass rate.
      How did Jona pass looking at his fruits as we shall judge them by their fruits.
      Disaster!!!!

    • Ba Dickson Jere nabo. You can’t have highest and lowest pass rates in the same year. If he, ba Jere, doesn’t understand the basic difference between pass rate na raw number of students that passed, kuti twalanda pali ba student? Yangu mayo icalo cesu.

    • Last year over 300 were made to pass becoz of 2 special students: Lungu’s daughter & Given Lubinda.

      This year the pass rate has returned back to normal rate of 4 per year. Mutati’s niece was dubiously passed.

      What a rubbish institution.

    • This cartel of lawyers should be stopped once for all. This is protectionism of the worst kind.

      If this is allowed to continue Zambia shall have SC only from certain tribes favored by PF. This is a huge scandal that needs to stopped.

      Where does ZIALE get their second markers from?. Who regulates and checks if ZIALE sticks to the agreed law practice syllabus for exams? If non these happen at ZIALE then ZIALE is a dodgy institution killing the legal profession in Zambia and should be reformed urgently.

      Surely if only 3 students pass out of over 300 students then ?IALE does not offer value for money and law students should boycot it. It should be closed end off. If that was here in UK ?IALE would be non existent by now.

      What happened to the old law practice certificate and…

    • ZIALE is right. You can’t have half backed lawyers taking on high profile cases. Otherwise you end up with legal disgraced individuals like Mwiinde on the legal bench. A lawyer ought to be properly grilled to be equal to the task not just being rich at legal jargon. The world is mean, thus we need level headed legal characters. There is just no leakage and chaps are mad.

  2. So, are ZIALE lecturers saying University lecturers are are very useless and ZIALE lecturers are not? Aren’t some ZIALE lecturers recent local University graduates? If these results are reflective of the quality of Zambian graduates (obviously across the board), there is urgent need to shut down the whole system refocus and start afresh.

  3. Professor Kenneth Mwenda, its been a very long time you last peeped at UNZA. During our time (including you), we understood and took our studies very seriously but if you ask me, today most if not all students only go there for leisure. Even if the same students were to be in your class for Masters in the US, you will be the first one to question their first degree. The problem isnt the lecturers as you know, its the students. A lecturer introduces a subject, guides and tutors a student on how to synthesize knowledge but these kids most of the time they want to be cheated by HH forgetting that the world out there doesnt know HH and UPND. Thats the problem. Even if it meant only one passing the exam, so be it because he/she would have fulfilled the expectations of the real world.
    So…

  4. hope in the LORD…. ZIALE is good…. what you learn at university is substantive law…. At ZIALE it is procedural law…..The society expects the advocate to solve problems and they are not interested in statutes or laws. for example no university in zambia teaches about a completion statement or ldgement schedules to be filed at Ministry of Lands… ZIALE teaches it…… Bane, i can testify what ZIALE can do….
    the best student deserves it… she was hardworking and passed the mid year exams..6 had passed and shev was one of them……

  5. Only 4 out 384? There’s plainly something wrong with these examinations. The institute’s qualification system for the bar seems to be exagerrated like in many other things things in our country. Even the Havard University normally records over 90% graduation rate and that’s one of the best law institutes worldwide, so what’s so special about ZIALE? I believe Prof. Mwenda more than Mr. Ngulube: students are not always to blame.

  6. It is tragic that an Institution which vetted the candidates before letting them Study can not recognise its own incompetence. ZIALLE has a responsibility to candidates, the Ministry of Justice and the Country as a whole and should feed us with fresh crop of Practitioners. The Institution be disbanded and a new responsible one formed for the Country, Refund the money for failure to coach or train candidates well.

  7. Please introduce Aptitude tests before admitting students to some of these sensitive schools.
    Most students enter University by having 6 to 8 points. This is rubbish because 90% of this kind of results pass with leaked papers. The strong students come to Universities with around 12 to 15 Points. Rubbish this point at our own peril.

    • I know you will ask how they make it through to 4th years. Students who have once tested leakage will always look for leakage.

  8. Tell me I am not the only one that sees that ba Jere does not seem to understand the concept of pass RATE. Some statement about lowest and highest pass rate occurring at the same time, this as a function of number of students involved. Maybe a Jere needs some teaching.

  9. I agree with Hon.Ngulube.The standards and quality of education in Zambia have progressively been falling.Most of the good results bandied about,both at secondary and tertiary levels are products of examination malpractice and substandard learning institutions that have been let to operate.ZIALE and UNZA school of medicine are reliable reflection of this sad state of affairs.

  10. Heheheh, we know you you ba Ziale you like money plus you dont want the system to be flooded with lawyers its not good the system.

  11. I think there is more to these failures than meet the eye. Much as we are lumping the blame on lecturers, parents and their children (students) should not escape blame. How many time times do current parents sit with their children to review students’ work? As an educator, I think as parents we need to play a role. Lats year two years ago the situation was the same. Then I authored an article on the status quo. You may refer to it as we explore the possible causes of this pathetic situation. Spare some time and read the article below by copying the link and pasting it in your web browser:
    ********

  12. This is just a tip of an iceberg. The whole legal system in Zambia may need to be overhauled. Difficult questions need to be asked answered. Questions like: Who has access to lawyers? On average, how long does it take for a case to be concluded in our legal system? How many cases are adjourned because a Lawyer did not turn up for the case? How many case files are lost in the system and by Lawyers? I hope someone will have the courage to make delivery of Justice a key election issue.

  13. The sad thing about all this is that nothing is done about it by the government even if you complain as we are making noise students need to pay K9000 by Friday for the repeaters exam.So why is government surely allowing this to happen when when there is serious failure rate.CLOSE ZIALE TO AVOID EMBRASSMENT.

  14. Hon Tutwa is right and so is Prof Mwenda. The latter wrote an article on the need for teaching methodology for those teaching or lecturing at ZIALE and he gave an example of how it is done at WARWICK University in UK. DO U REMEMBER THAT ADVISE ? On the other hand the caliber of students from UNZA is below par and in one of the articles i wrote that appeared in the Zambia Daily Mail i talked about the high level of plagiarism that prevails at theses Zambian institution except for at ZCAS where the anti plagiarism mechanism called turnitin has been employed for most courses like BA/MBA Hons in Busines Studies and Business Administration offered by the University of Greenwich and ZCAS.

  15. In 2012, a Parliamentary Committee on legal affairs led by Hon. J. Mwiimbu brought out findings on ZIALE that included reasons for high failure at the institution. It looks like that report went down the drain without implementing any of its recommendations.

  16. Comment:This is what happens when people fail to concentrate on what they are supposed to do… All they need is leakage.. Leakage has damaged our schools. From primary through to Tertiary levels. It’s a situation where you have someone with powerful results but the person in actual sense is dull. An indication that leakage played a role. Let’s not blame our lecturers. We should blame ourselves

  17. I do not agree with Prof Ken Mwenda because while he has achieved a lot academically, he has no practical legal experience in Zambia. The lecturers are teaching Zambian law to be practiced in Zambia. A state counsel is better placed and has the experience to teach at ZIALE than a professor who has never practiced law or worked in Zambia.

  18. ZIALE is a big scandal!! We know that older law practitioners does not want competition from fresh blood! They control this Industry by carefully limiting numbers to be admitted! In this case, they enjoy plenty of legal representation!

  19. ZIALE administrators are just myopic. Our students are not dull. You need to travel broad ,compare to students in the western world, ours are not below par. If our same students were in Universities abroad they will be shining. I have seen drop outs from UNZA who later migrated abroad and did wonders academically. Now lawyers and doctors abroad with high quality performance. ZIALE, what a place full of misguided crooks.

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