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Mr Gideon Boye Quarcoo, Deputy Minister of Communications, has observed that the private sector has a crucial role in ensuring that the Ghanaian child is provided with equal opportunity to access quality education. To this end, he said, private individuals and corporate bodies should partner government and complement its efforts in providing affordable and quality education to the nation�s future leaders. Mr Quarcoo made the observation at the Second Graduation ceremony of the Martin Luther King Junior School at Ashaiman-Lebanon at the weekend. The theme for the occasion which witnessed the graduation of 36 junior high school students, was �The Junior High School: The Role of the Private Sector.� Mr Quarcoo said it was regrettable that even though a lot of the country�s scarce resources was being spent on education, the level of literacy was relatively low. He said it was for this reason that the contribution of the private sector towards providing quality education was indispensable. The Deputy Communication Minister pointed out that the country�s socio-economic development and growth and its attainment of a middle income status would be a mirage if the development of the human resource base was left out. He noted that the New Educational Reform sought to address the phenomenon by laying emphasis on Science, Technical and Vocational Education, in order to create the conducive environment that would equip the Ghanaian child with employable skills. �Effective and efficient education provides employment, increases productivity, enhances one�s socio-economic standard, and also facilitates the macro-economic growth of a nation,� he said. Mr Quarcoo stressed the need for pragmatic measures to address the falling standards of education in recent years which had manifested in poor results in the Basic Education Certificate Education (BECE) Examination results. He, however, commended Martin Luther King Junior School for its splendid performance in this year�s BECE with 100 per cent and distinctions, and urged the school�s authorities not to be complacent, but to work harder to achieve more academic laurels. Mr Emmanuel Max-voy, Director of the School, said it was founded in 1998, with only three children including his eldest daughter. �Martin Luther King Junior School now boasts of 650 pupils,� he said. Mr Max-voy indicated that the days when government alone was responsible for everything was past and gone, and therefore underscored the need for society to assist in providing the required infrastructure for the nation�s development and progress. He pledged the private sector�s preparedness to complement government�s efforts at ensuring quality education for all and sundry, adding, �as private people, we will struggle together with our national leaders, knowing fully well that we will be free and self-sufficient as a nation one day.� On the school�s performance and placement in the BECE Examinations, the Director said in 2007, it placed 51st nationwide on the list of private schools of excellence. He said last year, the school placed first in the whole of Ashaiman and fourth in the Tema Metropolis, adding that 20 out of 22 students presented for the examinations, had aggregate six. Mr Max-voy indicated that 28 out of the school�s 36 candidates presented in this year�s examinations scored aggregate six. For his prize, Mr Godfred Mensah, the over-all best teacher for 2008-09, took home a 14-inch coloured television.