The recent announcement that Guyana will get its own law school by 2018 has been met with much praise from various sections of the population. Over the years, there have been many calls from various stakeholders, especially University of Guyana students themselves, for the Government to move in this direction; and now it is indeed pleasing to learn that the nation is one step closer to seeing this project become a reality.
This newspaper reported that the Guyana Government last Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the University College of the Caribbean (UCC) and Law College of the Americas (LCA) to open a law school here, hopefully by 2018.
The school, which is to be named the JOF Haynes Law School of the Americas (JHLSA), will be established to accommodate students desirous of furthering their studies in the field of law and will also cater for students from the Region.
In any case, the agreement with the Council of Legal Education to facilitate Guyanese law students to pursue their Legal Education Certificate (LEC) at the Hugh Wooding Law School (HWLS) in Trinidad and Tobago will expire next year, and the Government would have been forced to renegotiate another agreement. One would, therefore, hope that the authorities here would move with speed to complete all the arrangements to set up the JHLSA in time to cater for the expiration of this previous arrangement with the HWLS.
The Attorney General has assured that the law school will be accredited and its programme recognised throughout the Region. Assurances were also given that the lecturers contracted will be of high standard to ensure that the students are offered quality legal education.
From what we gather, this undertaking will be in the form of a public-private partnership, with Government holding 30 per cent interest and the private partners 70 per cent. Government’s contribution will primarily be to provide the land needed for the development of the school.
The model chosen to set up the school is similar to ones used in other developed countries, which have proven to be successful. Once the necessary feasibility studies are done, etc, the authorities should move right ahead into making the project a reality. The partnership to establish the law school will surely help to bridge the significant gap between the demand for legal education in the Region and the provision for such education.
Certainly, this is a step in the right direction considering that for many years our law students have been faced with very difficult times as they have had to cross many hurdles in gaining admission to the HWLS.
Many had reached frustration point and even had to quit their dreams of becoming certified in the field of law, since not only are the costs associated with studying at HWLS very high, but the process to gain entry was burdensome and not even guaranteed. Now that this country will get its own law school, we are certain that more Guyanese students will explore the field.
Further, establishing a law school here will not only ease the level of frustration our students face in gaining admission at HWLS, but it will show the rest of the Region that Guyana can also be a leader as it relates to the study of various areas of the law. Most of all, it will bring a sense of national pride and satisfaction to citizens that we too can achieve something of that level of significance in the region.
