Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

NNSL (July 30/99) - Yellowknife's Learning Centre is an example of a school filling the needs the mainstream system simply can't cope with, says Education Minister Michael Miltenberger.

Miltenberger was speaking earlier this month about the private school that caters to a group of children with a variety of learning disabilities.

"In an ideal world, where resources are there for the taking, we could provide those services," he said, "but that's not our reality and we're trying to do the best we can."

That's where Beulah Phillpot comes in. The Yellowknife educator opened the Learning Centre at the request of parents looking for more individualized and small-group instruction for their young children -- and the non-profit school just completed its 15th academic year.

But far from trying to trying to build up a huge enrolment, Phillpot said the centre's goal is to help its 14 pupils get into or return to the public school system.

"We're not so concerned with the causes of the children's learning disabilities," she said, "but more about the techniques and strategies to get them into regular classrooms."

Ed and Adeline Gentleman say they're happy with that approach and haven't a discouraging word to say about the centre, where their 10-year-old son, Kevin, attends classes.

Ed said that while Kevin's hearing problem was detected in the regular school system, it was Phillpot who correctly diagnosed his hyperactivity.

"It's the one-on-one that the children get that addresses all their problems -- even the ones you don't know about," he said.

"Children are number one in that school, not the parents or the teachers."

Ed said he understands the burdens placed on regular schools, which can't match the centre's ratio of six students to a teacher. But he said Kevin has progressed two and a half grades in less than a year and is a little resentful families must pay for such specialized education.

"If your child deserves a free education," he said, "why doesn't mine?"

Full-time tuition at the Learning Centre costs $7,900.

Because it is a private school, the centre was largely exempt from the recent political debate on education funding. Phillpot said, however, families saw some relief in 1996 when the government amended the Education Act to recognize private schools and fund them 40 per cent of the per capita allocated to students at public institutions.

But special-needs funding did come up during the education debate at the legislature, and Yellowknife North MLA Roy Erasmus sponsored a successful motion calling for an additional $5 million to be found for special-needs education this year.

"We're continuing to look for more money at this point," said Miltenberger on Wednesday, "but as of now our $170-million budget remains unchanged."