Council for Legal Education sued over bar exam results

Over 200 law students file a lawsuit against the Council for Legal Education over discrepancies in April 2024 exam results. [Standard, File]

Over 200 law students have sued the Council for Legal Education (CLE) over the April 2024 exams whose results were released in July.

They allege that CLE released the exams on July 9 on the students’ portals but on the same day pulled the results down without any notice.

 ‘New’ results were then uploaded but they were different from the ones CLE had uploaded the first time.

 “The petitioners had varying marks between the different series/batches of the released results, raw marks that ranged between a pass and fail in the respective units that they had sat for a re-sit,” they say in the petition.

 “A couple of the petitioners had a fail on units that they had already passed units, the affected candidates had not sat for re-sits in the said units, as they were not subject to a re-sit.”

 CLE administers the Advocates Training Programme (ATP) exams after students have undergone training at the Kenya School of Law (KSL).

 At KSL students take course work, project works and their orals before writing the ATP exam at CLE.

 The bar exam accounts for 60 per cent of the marks while the project and orals account for 20 per cent each.

 For one to be admitted to the role of advocate, they need to attain 50 per cent across nine units offered for the ATP which one pays Sh5,000 for each unit.

 CLE offers three types of results; a pass denoted as “P”, a fail denoted as “F” or a missing mark denoted as “X” in the transcripts.

 If one fails any of the units then to have a re-sit, they are required to pay Sh10,000.

 If one disputes the results after getting an “F” then for a remark they are required to pay Sh15,000.

 They argue that requiring one to pay more money for a re-sit or a remark amounts to extortion.

“The CLE by inhibiting the petitioner’s attainment of the 50 per cent pass mark, by having a policy of not computing their oral and project work marks in the re-sit examinations, further violates the national values of non-discrimination, equity, equality, inclusiveness and social justice.”

 The 211 students want the court to suspend a notice by CLE calling for the application of remark for the April bar exams.

 They also want CLE ordered not to meddle with the exam booklets and avail them for perusal and comparison.

 The students want CLE to avail of the marking scheme its tutors used to mark the April exam and the institution to be barred from further tampering with the results.

 “That the process of scrutiny and verification will only be possible and efficient if the marking schemes for all the 9 units of the April 2024 Advocates Training Programme Bar exam are also availed in this court.”

 In their application, they say that the exam results were marred by lack of transparency and the council failed to release credible or verifiable results on July 9, 2024.

 They allege the actions by the council amount to maladministration and mismanagement of the ATP 2024 bar exams which violate the constitution and rule of law.

 They add that it is a violation of their right to education, social and economic rights as well as fair administrative action.

 The students fault the council’s requirement for one to produce a court order to be allowed access to their exam booklets.

 They accuse CLE of failure to uphold good governance, integrity, transparency and accountability as required by the constitution.

 “That the sequential change of individual students’ raw marks hours after the official release of the results vide the CLE’s General Notice No.16 of 2024 in their respective student portals as the day of 9th July progressed, casts a legitimate concern of maladministration, lack of integrity and transparency and accountability in the administration of the April 2024 bar examination.”

 They accuse CLE of failing to communicate about the change of marks for different students’ portals hours after the release of the said results.

 The students say the constitution gives them the right to have their erroneous results corrected since it affects their future.

 “That it’s prudent CLE rectify their glaring errors evidenced on July 9, 2024, by granting all affected students a review and scrutiny of the April 2024 Bar Examination booklets before an advocate of their choice.”

 They allege that some of the 211 petitioners have had three different sets of results uploaded to their portals.

 The petition further alleges one student had marks changed from two passes and seven fails to eight passes and one fail; conveyancing was one of the units they were recorded to have failed.

 They chose to re-sit two units namely civil litigation and criminal litigation in April 2024, and when the results came out the conveyancing unit results had changed from fail to missing mark.

 In another instance, a student who had failed conveyancing in the April 2024 exam had the results of the unit missing and when the results were re-uploaded, they were awarded a fail.

 “The affected student enquired about the matter and despite indicating their name and registration number in the email sent to the 1st respondent (CLE) the reply email quoted different names, which were not for the affected student.”

 They say that CLE alleged a network for the reported cases but they had stabilized the situation some of the petitioners’ raw marks kept changing 24 hours later and they remain un-rectified.

 According to the petition, some of the portals showed that students had failed some units even before the results were released on July 9 and after the release it was confirmed what the portals had reflected.