LDC director says high failure rates are due to lack of concentration among students

Frank Nigel Othembi, Director of the Law Development Centre (LDC), has attributed the high failure rates at LDC to a lack of individual concentration.

According to Othembi, LDC students, particularly those at the Kampala campus, face several distractions that limit their preparation for exams, contributing to the high failure rate.

“At Kampala campus, we have a library that can accommodate 100 people, and at first, we thought it is small, but when you go there it is always empty, students are not using it, and they are not sitting in discussion groups," Othembi told the committee.

The LDC director made these remarks during a Tuesday afternoon debate with Members of Parliament (MPs) from the Public Accounts Committee (Central).

He mentioned that the administration had discovered that the Lira and Mbarara campuses were outperforming the Kampala campus.

Othembi, on the other hand, mentioned various additional underlying issues, such as fiscal constraints and a lack of infrastructure.

MPs on the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee had previously voiced alarm about the high incidence of student failure at LDC.

According to a 2020/21 report, at least 90% of lawyers who sat for the academic year 2019/2020 Bar course exams at the LDC failed.

A total of 1,682 lawyers took the tests, with 70% failing partially owing to retakes. 20% of the lawyers failed completely.

Only 145 students passed the bar exam, accounting for 9% of all students.

Several students have long argued for the end of LDC's monopoly on training lawyers who want to become high court advocates.

To remain as advocates in Uganda, every law graduate from all reputable universities in the country must participate in an eight-month training program at LDC.