Council of Legal Education reviews Nigerian Law School curriculum

The Council of Legal Education on Monday met to review the curriculum of the Nigeria Law School, the Director-General of the school, Olanrewaju Onadeko, said.
Onadeko told newsmen in Calabar, Cross River State, venue of the meeting, that the review was in line with prevailing international best practice.
According to him, the curriculum is being reviewed by senior academic staff of the school to enable law graduates to cope with challenges in the profession.
He said: “The aim of the roundtable is to further review the curriculum by way of stocktaking and reflecting on successes recorded, as well as possible challenges.
“We are also here to hold interactive discussions and ultimately adopt means and ways of improving our new curriculum and its sustainability in line with prevailing international best practice in the legal profession.”
Onadeko added that at the end of the meeting, participants would be able to adopt suitable means of enhancing lecture delivery as prescribed in the new curriculum.
He noted that participants would also adopt practical teaching methodology at the school, in conformity with best practice in legal education.
He said: “The NLS, based on its new vision and mission, adopted a new curriculum and introduced new teaching methods in 2008.
“The new curriculum had been used for five years and there had been positive feedback from stakeholders on the impact of the reform.
“Things have moved on from the traditional areas of law to new areas.”
The director-general said: “We now have international finance, securitisation, equipment leasing, oil and gas and so on and very important for lawyers in the 21st century and the general complaints about the competence of new lawyers.”
The NLS boss pointed out that the school should not be solely blamed because law graduates spend more years in universities before being admitted for a one-year programme in the law school.
He said: “The challenges rest more on the structure of legal education.
“This probably explains why we have chosen to re-examine our curriculum again.”
Onadeko noted that the primary mission of the school was to prepare law graduates for the practice of law, no matter what spill over benefits there may be to other careers.
He said: “The centrality of our gathering here is to fashion out the required skills, traits, attitude and quality of mind that a well trained lawyer should possess.
“There is good reason to reduce doctrinal instruction that uses the Socrates dialogue and the case method.
“Emphasis is now placed on experiential legal education, which integrates the teaching of knowledge, skills and values together in one course manner and to instruct on professionalism.”