The Chief Justice, Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, says children must be introduced to legal education at an early age, to help them understand the significance of the rule of law. Chief Justice Torkornoo, said the law is the only means of ensuring an effective and efficient justice system and must therefore be inculcated in the youth fairly early in life. The Chief Justice said this, while swearing in six newly appointed executives of the Justice Club at Chemu Senior High Technical School in Tema, as part of the Chief Justice Mentoring Program.
The Annual Chief Justice’s Mentoring Programme has existed for the past sixteen years. The original idea for the programme was to mentor young girls into becoming influential people in society and more importantly, to emulate the then Lady Chief Justice, Justice Georgina Wood, Ghana’s first woman Chief Justice. However, the current Chief Justice, Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, enhanced the program, by introducing the Justice Club, in Senior High Schools, to mentor students beyond the one-day annual programme, ensure adequate impartation of knowledge to aid in the development of hardworking young adults.
So far, six schools, including Chemu SHTS, in Tema, have been selected to pilot the program, where mentors drawn from the bar and bench have been assigned to mentor club members.
Prof. Justice Anku Tsede, chairperson of the Justice Mentoring Program and a court of Appeal Judge, said membership of the Justice Clubs is also open to people outside the schools, adding that since 2015, the UNFPA has collaborated with the Judicial Service in organising the mentoring programme for some head porters, popularly known as kayayei, to inspire them to pursue the law profession. The headmistress of the school, Vicentia Anin-Agyei, appealed to the Chief Justice and other dignitaries to support the school’s library with learning materials as they chart a new path.
