Fort Resolution (Oct 18/04) - A Fort Resolution woman wants government financial support to help her daughter attend high school in Yellowknife.

Georgina Biscaye is looking for $7,000 to pay for 10 months of room and board a year. "That's all I want."

When she asked the Department of Education for help, "I was basically told it wasn't my choice where I school my daughter, it was up to the government," she says. She believes it should be a parent's choice.

This will be the fourth year her 16-year-old daughter Lacey has attended St. Patrick high school and lived with Biscaye's sister. She is now in Grade 11.

Biscaye claims Fort Resolution's Deninu school doesn't have the facilities and resources to give her daughter an education on par with Yellowknife.

"I don't want my daughter to fall behind," she says.

Biscaye has also approached a number of other organizations for help, including social services, Deninu Ku'e First Nation and the South Slave Divisional Education Council. Last year, the First Nation paid her daughter's airfare to and from Yellowknife, including a trip home for Christmas.

Education Minister Charles Dent explained that 10 years ago the government moved away from residential schools to grade extensions in communities.

"You can't afford to do both," Dent says.

The minister noted it is a community choice, pointing to Paulatuk, which decided against grade extensions and continues to send Grade 11 and 12 students to Inuvik.

Grade 11 and 12 students from Lutsel K'e attend school in Fort Smith because those grades are not offered in their home community either.

Dent praised the positive impacts of grade extensions, noting there has been a dramatic increase in the number of students staying in school. A decade ago, only 40 per cent of high-school-age youth were actually in school, compared with 75-80 per cent now.

Curtis Brown, superintendent of the South Slave education council, defended Deninu school.

"I think the evidence shows that Deninu school is providing quality grades," Brown says, noting graduating students have to pass the same exams as other NWT students.