The Law Development Centre (LDC) management committee appointed FRANK NIGEL OTHEMBI on May 1, 2012, as its director for a four-year term.
Recently, his contract was renewed for a further four years. He talked to Yudaya Nangonzi about the current reforms at LDC where law graduates study for diplomas in legal practice among others.
Take us through some of the reforms since 2012.
I think the main reforms that I could talk about are two. LDC has been in existence since 1970 and over the years, we have pretty much been teaching the same things. Now, we have come up with a new curriculum.
We have specifically asked the question: what skill does a fresh graduate of LDC, require the first day you appear at your job or law firm? We have now made a drastic change and the new curriculum has been implemented from last academic year 2015/16. For instance, we have introduced things like management skills. We have also brought on elective subjects … previously students were required to do everything.
The other reform is the use of ICT … LDC has to embrace technology in its teaching. We have a WiFi- enabled environment with fast internet accessible from all kinds of devices, procured computers and projectors for each of the eight firm rooms.
Is ICT the reason why all LDC students are required to have laptops?
Yes. Of course, there are financial implications and we cannot chase somebody away because they [don’t have] a laptop. But … have required them. Previously, when students enrolled, we would require them to read all these big books with Acts of parliament.
But when they report this academic year 2016/17, they will only receive a flash disk that will have all the material they need for the entire course. So, LDC is becoming a very modern institution.
What about infrastructural developments?
The main infrastructural development that we are doing is the auditorium. In this teaching facility, we shall [house] about 1,000 students. All that is left with the auditorium is fitting the chairs which they started [last week]. We shall also install a standby generator in case of power shortage.
This facility will not only be used for lectures but also generate revenue … it will be available for hiring functions like conferences mainly and musical events. The main building is quite old and we are going to do a structural integrity test … and after that, we shall do major refurbishment. We have a master plan for the centre but it is eventually all about money, we intend to do a lot more.
What about calls to set up regional centres across the country?
We have had a discussion with the ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and in particular with the minister, Kahinda Otafiire, who is very supportive of that. As you can see, LDC in terms of space and facilities is quite limited. We can comfortably take on 1,000 students for the bar course.
But if we are to take more than that, we would be constrained. However, the way to go is decentralizing education because our idea is to have regional centres where we can have the bar course training conducted. We have developed a cabinet paper… so we expect that in the near future, our proposal will appear before cabinet.
Do you support liberalization of LDC given the monopoly it enjoys today?
Yes, we enjoy that monopoly on the bar course. But … I don’t support and I’m not against liberalization. My view has always been; what is the best way to deliver quality education and legal training?
As things stand, if LDC or the bar course was de-monopolized without proper regulation, we would have a big problem in terms of quality control. My thinking is that, eventually, liberalization will come and I do not except that [in] 10 years from now, the LDC will be the only institution offering the bar course.
But I would want this to come in an environment where we have the legal framework to ensure quality, maybe LDC or the law council as the board that enforces standards and a common curriculum at all the training institutions. We could even have a common examination the way Uneb does its work. LDC then maybe comes in to set the exams and become the regulator. All this has to be done in an organised manner in order to have a quality bar course.
Is the high failure rate on the pre-bar exams related to limited facilities – there are concerns by some lawyers are left out.
That is not correct because we are not the ones who do the pre-entry exams. If it was LDC administering the exam, then you can say LDC does everything and controls the numbers. But it all goes back to the law council.
Actually, we also complain that the people passing are too few. But we want people to pass the exam because they deserve to pass. Of course I also get concerned if, say, 1,200 students sit the exams and only 300 pass. Then, there is a big problem. Are the universities taking on the right people? Are they training the students sufficiently to become lawyers?
But the same students sit for university pre-entry exams and pass.
But the other problem comes that after that sieving and later joining LDC, you still find quite a number of them fail some subjects. So, if these students are the cream at LDC, I would expect them to pass without any problems at all.
Anyway, pre-entry in principle is a very wonderful idea to ensure quality because we need people who have the skills to refine issues and intellectual capacity to undertake this very demanding course.
So, since inception in 2012, has the pre-entry exam improved the quality of graduates at LDC?
It has really improved quality to some extent. But, perhaps, I think it is time for us to discuss the pre-entry and evaluate it most especially with the issue of handling appeals just in case someone fails the exam. Pre-entry has not done enough but in terms of identifying quality, I think pre-entry can be improved.
Are universities not feeding LDC with the right students?
I think we need to have a discussion with the universities on legal education ... it has never been followed up. We need a serious discussion because some of the students come from the universities without the basic knowledge of the law.
Talk to us about the harmonisation of qualifications across East Africa? Is it still feasible?
Yes, in the long run it has to work because we are moving towards regional integration. I’m aware that the law council recently approved a memorandum of understanding which was signed by the different law societies of the different countries and how they can recognise each other’s qualifications.
At an East African Community level, there have been discussions on harmonising on mutual recognition. This will imply that if you qualify from Kenya, you can come and practise from Uganda. But this is just being discussed and we have not come up with concrete legislative reforms. As LDC, we are happy to support this.
Following last year’s report from the Law Council, what measures have been set up to stop examination malpractice?
By the way, that report was done by LDC. We conducted our investigation and have since taken action. We have cancelled diplomas, recalled them and taken disciplinary action against our own staff.
Two of them were retired in public interest and other two got various disciplinary actions. We have come up with an examination management policy which is yet to be approved but aspects of it have been implemented.
Tell us about the evening bar course.
This is a proposal that we came up with because of the increasing demand for legal education and working people who demand to join the course. We gave the proposal to the law council which has no objection but wanted us to make some changes.
They wanted to know how the programme will run, the lecturers, same number of hours as the day programme, among others. And, we are working on answering those logistical issues. In terms of when it will start, it will optimistically begin in the next academic year 2017/18, subject to approval by the law council.
nangonzi@observer.ug