by Ian Elliot
Northern News Services

NNSL (Dec 01/97) - Chief Albert Wright school in Tulita and Chief T'Selihye school in Fort Good Hope got a small mountain of new televisions, VCRs, boom boxes and other electronic gear. Playing the role of Santa were three companies conducting oil and gas exploration in the region.

In the case of Chief Albert Wright school, the donations bought a small pile of electronics sitting in the school foyer last week. It was a delivery that couldn't help pleasing principal Angus Lennie.

"We haven't spent the money foolishly," he said last week. "These are things that will really help the kids learn."

For example, using the new boom boxes and hand-held microphones, students taking Slavey language classes can tape themselves speaking the language and play it back to check their pronunciation.

The school, which has 140 students between kindergarten and Grade 12, received a one-time donation of $30,000, two-thirds of it from Esso Resources and the rest split between Ranger and Unocal Oil.

The school had asked the companies to consider making a donation to the education system because they were active in the region, and the companies responded.

"As more and more companies come into the district to do exploration, we are hoping that they will also contribute to education," he said.

The school's next priority is increasing the number of computers to which its 140 students have access. While the school has a well-equipped computer lab, Lennie would like to see computers put into classrooms where the children take other subjects, making it possible for them to integrate the machines into their other studies.

Sahtu students aren't the only ones in the North to be taking advantage of what has become a corporate trend. N.J. Macpherson students in Yellowknife, for example, recently received $1,500 in sporting goods from industry giant Nike, after they won a fundraising contest.