Let's reform Legal Training

Let’s reform Legal education

 There has been a call to reform legal education in Uganda, but I think that our Law school of Uganda Christian University can lead this initiative and be a model University.

The methods of instruction currently used are more of instructor- centered and yet learning these days has evolved to be more learner-centered. This is due to availability of more learning material across various internet sites, journals, easy access to text books and news papers.

The main methods of instruction used are lectures and tutorials. Lectures are good, but very long. Two hours are long enough to generate boredom and loss of attention.

Tutorials are meant to be group discussions led by the tutorial assistants who discuss a set of problems with the students. This gives the students ample opportunity to discuss and ask questions for clarity. However, regrettably, they have become avenues of spotting for the final examination questions and reviewing of past papers which encourages spot work. This promotes passivity, conformism, dependence and docility thus militating against active learning.

We can explore other methods of instruction like independent study and this should be crafted in a way that every student studies an area of Law which particularly appeals to them and then presentations made by the students to their classmates. Through this method, everyone contributes on the different areas studied, and at the end of the week or month, a notes bank is created for the students where they can access the various presentations made.

Supervised analytic writing involves a major writing assignment on a selected topic by a student in consultation and on close supervision by an assigned supervisor.

Moots are a rich avenue. They help with confidence building, communication skills in a mock court/trial experience. They also promote more research and use of well defined authorities. In my view, they should be accorded more time that tutorials. Furthermore, they promote analytical and argument based submissions.

In the words of Professor G C Hangdell of Harvard Law School, a good lawyer thinks, reads and analyzes critically. Thinking and analytical skills can be gained through moots and the Socratic Method of instruction but not passive learning. 

Silver Kayondo

Bachelor of Laws, UCU