Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

INUVIK (Nov 13/98) - Education was the focus of much discussion and resolutions at the Beaufort Delta leaders' conference, possibly because Education, Culture and Employment Minister Charles Dent showed up to face critics.

A classroom space crunch, problems attracting and retaining teachers and problems with staff housing units being sold during a teacher's term and the teacher being tossed out were concerns in area communities. But the main, repeated request, was for money.

"If (community) size was all that mattered then Tsiigehtchic wouldn't be getting a new school this year," Dent said of a planned school not yet under construction.

"What is important is need and that's where we try to put our priorities."

Dent's standard answer was that no pot of money was sitting idle in a vault in Yellowknife, so he simply does not have any to spend.

Aside from specific hamlet concerns, area leaders suggested integrating content of the Gwich'in and Inuvialuit land claims into the Grade 12 curriculum, creating more capability for schools to provide special needs instruction for those with fetal alcohol syndrome or fetal alcohol effects and for teachers to be distributed to account for hamlets with decreasing enrolment.

Inuvik Coun. Vivian Hunter asked why the Aurora College recreation leaders' program has two instructors and four students.

Campus director Miki O'Kane explained the program's ratio allows instructors to explore the region, taking both people and travel time.

Inuvik Mayor George Roach stressed his desire for the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk highway and proposed Aurora College students be included in its development.

"We need to be more positive about the things happening in our region," Roach said.

Beaufort Delta education council chair Bob Simpson said he did not think demonstrating the demand for workers for the much-awaited highway or locating a supply of interested students would be difficult.

Beaufort Delta education council director James Anderson released new enrolment statistics.

In Inuvik, SAM school is down one per cent, but Samuel Hearne enrolment has increased 5.6 per cent this year.

The big enrolment change in the region is in Sachs Harbour where enrolment has dropped 30 per cent.

Aklavik enrolment is up almost 18 per cent, Fort McPherson is up seven per cent, Paulatuk is up 5.4 per cent, Tsiigehtchic is up three per cent and Tuk is marginally up .5 per cent.

Otherwise, tension heated up when Mackenzie Delta MLA David Krutko publicly confronted Dent for spending money to go on junkets to Antwerp in a diamond promotion effort while not putting enough money into education.

"If we invest one dollar now, we'll save $7 in the future," Krutko said.