Law school task force set up
Stabroek News
August 29, 2002
A task force has been established to carry forward the proposal for the establishment of a law school offering a practice certificate at the beginning of the September 2003 academic year.
And Attorney-General, Doodnauth Singh, told Stabroek News yesterday that he would inform the Caribbean Council of Legal Education at its meeting in St Kitts on September 6-7, of Guyana's intention and seek agreement in principle for accreditation.
The Attorney-General said that the task force would comprise members of the University of Guyana (UG) Law Department and would be expected to prepare detailed proposals and timetables for establishing the law school.
The Attorney-General said that the decision was motivated by the government's unhappiness at the number of graduates from UG's law programme denied automatic entry to the Hugh Wooding Law School because of the quota restriction. Guyana has been allotted 25 places at the school and graduates in excess of that number have to sit an entrance examination for any available places after all the places assigned to the member states which are signatories to the agreement that established the council and the law school have been taken up.
Another impediment is the decision of the Guyana government not to pay the economic cost of tuition for nationals attending the law school, from this academic year. Students continuing at the Hugh Wooding Law School will have to pay the US$10,000 a year tuition. Before now the students paid US$2,000 a year with the government picking up the rest of the tab.
Yesterday's meeting followed Cabinet's endorsement of the concept put up by the Law Department at the request of the Attorney- General and was to ensure that the university was on board with the proposals. President Bharrat Jagdeo has assured that the government is committed to providing the funding to establish the law school.