Feasibility study, though time-consuming, nearly complete for local law school

For years, Guyana has been after the establishment of a local law school and the country’s Attorney General Anil Nandlall said this week that the unfolding feasibility study is almost complete and should allow the project to move forward.

“(The feasibility study) is a protracted exercise, a time-consuming one because a lot of information has to be amassed for the Council of Legal Education

“I believe we are nearing completion of that feasibility study,” Nandlall said during his weekly ‘Issues in the News’ programme.

The Government of Guyana had set up a committee to deal specifically with the establishment of this school. That committee is chaired by Nandlall. Furthermore, about five acres of land is already identified at Turkeyen, next to the University of Guyana, for the construction of the regionally accredited law school under the auspices of the Council of Legal Education.

Through a new development model, the government will provide the land and building resources to construct the facility while the Council of Legal Education would manage the institution and its students.

Nandlall noted that the government is serious about getting the law school in Guyana so that students can benefit from such a venture.

For nearly three decades, Guyana has been trying to establish a law school within its jurisdiction.

This initiative merges with the government’s commitment to promote Guyana as an attractive offshore education destination. The proposed law school is expected to attract students from across the region and further afield and will ease the overloading which currently obtains, in particular, at Hugh Wooding and Norman Manley Law Schools.

Currently, Guyana is only allowed 25 students to enter the law programme at the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and Tobago as opposed to the twin-island republic and Jamaica churning out hundreds of students yearly.