Thursday, March 28, 2024

The high failure rate at ZIALE is a source of worry, and should be addressed

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Lusaka Lawyer Tutwa Ngulube has urged the Zambia Advanced Institute for Legal Studies to call for a stakeholder meeting to discuss the poor performance of students during examinations, adding that the failure rate at ZIALE is a source of worry which should be addressed.

Mr Ngulube said that ZIALE should engage Universities and advise them on how best to prepare their students and that as much as ZIALE is not entirely to blame, the institute should restrict the number of student in class.

Mr Ngulube said that having too many students in one class may compromise service delivery .

Mr. Ngulube was however quick to mention that most students coming out of Universities are allegedly half baked.

Mr. Ngulube who is also Kabwe Central Member of Parliament told ZNBC News that some of the graduates who go for attachment at his law firm cannot even draft a letter.

He said the quality of students and lecturers in various Universities also need to be checked.

Mr. Ngulube said instead of attacking ZIALE, Zambians should put pressure on Universities so that they start doing the right thing.

Over the years ZIALE has been branded as an institution where you do not expect more than five percent of the students to pass the law practice examination.

Out of the hundreds of students that enrol at Zambia’s only law practice institute each year, only a few are admitted to the Bar. The trend has been consistently so over the years. In 2017/2018 intake, only 4 out of 384 were admitted to the bar.

This year, the pass rate is not any different from the precedent set over the years. Only 5 out of 355 students who sat the 2019 final exams have passed, representing 1.4 percent.

Various stakeholders have raised concern, and justifiably so, over the consistently low pass rate at ZIALE.

Students, universities, non-governmental organisations, politicians and parents have all been unamused by the incredibly low pass rates at the institution.

Stakeholders including the Ministry of Justice have called on ZIALE to review its curriculum.

However, according to ZIALE, there was nothing wrong with their examinations except that students needed to work extremely hard.

16 COMMENTS

  1. I can’t believe we are still talking about ziale!
    Maybe the lecturers are rubbish!
    So tutwa says some interns can draft letter?
    Well ask them to text or WhatsApp the letters!

    • Bravo to this institution for not compromising on quality.

      This is just a reflection of how UNZA and other universities have devalued.

      Even Mushimba got a useless PhD from UNZA under the cover of darkness. That tells you everything.

      The problem is that this government does not understand what education is.

  2. We are not the only ones. The Ghanaian equivalent in 2019 “Out of nearly 1,820 prospective students, only 128 reportedly passed the entrance examination”. Same with other things such as load shedding, drought, bad economy, corruption

  3. So you want silver spoon to pass? Let it be very hard intact so that maybe Zambia can have well qualified people. The compromise in the education system in Zambia is what has led to mediocre people being misplaced on certain positions either as appeasement or through family ties, or corruption, no professionalism nor integrity involved in choosing people based on merit. Our education system must improve greatly .

  4. I shocked to hear that some students from UNZA couldn’t even spell words properly, it’s therefore right ZIALE failed them. This is proof that indeed UNZA is downgraded to junk status. No one passed from UNZA, so it’s UNZA that should put its house in order. Tutwa is just trying to be a useful idyot. These are lawyers who just know how to transfer title deeds

  5. Another case of useless parastatal enterprise failure. I thought these were proven to be failed economic models during the Kaunda era why are such inefficient organisations still allowed to exist?

  6. Tutwa tutwa
    The high under performance levels by this PF government is a source of worry.
    Tutwa you only cleared an exam but you legal faculties leave much to be desired your arguments mostly on governance are pathetic which goes to show you are incompetent together with your boss.

  7. @Maganizo

    Good observation.Its not just at ZIALE.In Ghana,on 7th October 2019,students marched from Law School to Jubilee House to present a petition to the President.The demonstration was as a result of mass failure recorded in the recent entrance exams of the Ghana School of Law,where 128 students out of 1 820 passed,representing 97 per cent failure rate.
    Question is,how rigorous are these examinations in order to be admitted to the bar?

    • Out of South Africa(medical field) “Out of 46 candidates from eight universities that wrote the FCS, only 15 passed. The 10 candidates from UKZN all passed and so did the two from SMU, while three from SU obtained the pass mark.
      The 31 failed candidates won’t be invited to the oral exam to be held between 14 and 18 October. This is the ultimate step to becoming a professional surgeon”. Could it be in part a results of using google to study instead of physical books

  8. ZIALE is doing a very commedable job. A good number of these candidates ought to have failed in the unversities but because of ‘sex for grades’ and corruption they are made to gaduate.
    At least ZIALE is cleaning up the mess.

  9. Its not only at universities or ZIALE, a good number of students at Colleges of Education who graduate to become teachers can hardly read or properly write. Give them work, they rush to Madam Google. You fail them, college principals decries “we’re not here to fail students!”
    ZIALE is right. Lawyers must be learned…not sugar coated. Education must fulfill its selective function.

  10. Keep it up ZIALE.

    Faka Moto, Zambia is no place for half baked professionals.

    Please bring ZIALE ku ma nase (nurses). Too much doba doba medical schools mu Zambia, resulting in the production of low grade nurses. Kanshi anga kakulasa nyeleti, iye Tata, kwati tako bachekako.

    No bwino bwino kuli ba nase. Bring ZIALE here too.

  11. First, pre-ZIALE exams need to be preceded by pre-law exams. In that way, obvious deficits could be dressed through remedial courses. Before doing LLB, it is necessary to have a Bachelors degree in any discipline from accredited universities. The LLB needs to be approached as graduate degree because of changed circumstances. Two, a special consultant report could be commissioned. The findings and recommendations of the study would be implemented before further evaluations. Three, The link between ZIALE and university was evident at UNILUS but obscured at UNZA. There is need to learn from UNILUS. Glorifying UNZA is wrong. Man-made institutions could fail to deliver to expectations. When that happens, the Indaba becomes a necessity in order to guarantee value for money.

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