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37
"NOTES ON TABLE III."
(a) This Table is a return of all children in the area for whom the
Local Education Authority are responsible and who (except in the case of
children suffering from epilepsy which is not severe) have been ascertained
to be blind, deaf, defective or epileptic within the meaning of Part V. of
the Education Act, 1921. It is the statutory duty of every Local Education
Authority formally to ascertain all defective children in their area irrespective
of the actual provision now made for their Instruction in Special
Schools. It is assumed that every Authority will have a complete list of
such children compiled from returns made continuously during the year
and kept constantly up to date. In order to secure uniformity, Authorities
are requested to make up this Table from their list of defective children
as it stands on the last day of each calendar year.
Children who are living in residential schools in the area but who come
from other areas should not be included in this Table; but children should
be included who are living in residential schools outside the area and who
are being maintained there by the Authority.
For the purpose of this Table, no child should be included whose defect
has not been ascertained by the School Medical officer or a medical
member of the Authority's staff.
The definitions of defective children as given in the Act are as follows
and must be very carefully borne in mind.
A blind child is a child who is too blind to be able to read the ordinary
school books used by children.
A deaf child is a child who is too deaf to be taught in a class of hearing
children in an elementary school.
Mentally and physically defective children are children who, not being
imbecile and not being merely dull and backward, are defective, that is to
say, children who by reason of mental or physical defect are incapable of
receiving proper benefit from the instruction in the ordinary public elementary
schools, but are not incapable by reason of that defect of receiving
benefit from instruction in such special classes or schools as under Part V.
of the Act may be provided for defective children.
Epileptic children are children who, not being idiots or Imbeciles,
are unfit by reason of severe epilepsy to attend the ordinary public elementary
schools.
(b) For the purpose of this return the Board require that children who
are blind within the meaning of the Act should be divided into two
categories, i.e., (1) those who are totally blind or so blind that they can only
be appropriately taught in a school or class for totally blind children, and
(2) those who, though they cannot read ordinary school books, or cannot
read them without injury to their eyesight, have such power of vision that
they can appropriately be taught in a school or class for the partially blind.
It should be understood that children who are able by means of suitable
glasses to read the ordinary school books used by children without
fatigue or injury to their vision, should not be included in this Table.
(c) It should be understood that none of the children in this Table
(except children suffering from epilepsy which is not severe) should in fact
be attending public elementary schools. When the heading is retained, it
is merely because at present the insufficiency of Special School accommodation
makes it impossible to do better for some defective children than to
allow them to attend the ordinary school. No space is left for the entry of
children with infectious pulmonary tuberculosis attending public elementary
schools, as these children should of course be promptly excluded
from such schools.
id) Children who are deaf within the meaning of the Act should be
classified for the purpose of this Table as (1) totally deaf or so deaf that
they can only be appropriately taught in a school or class for the totally
deaf, and (2) partially deaf, i.e.. those who can appropriately be taught
in a school or class for the partially deaf.
(e) This category includes only those children for whose education and
maintenance the Local Education Authority are responsible, and who are
not eligible for notification to the Local Control Authority under the
Mental Deficiency Act.
(/) In this part of the Table only those children should be included
who are epileptic within the meaning of the Act.
For practical purposes the Board are of opinion that children who are
subject to attacks of major epilepsy in school should be recorded as
"severe" cases and excluded from ordinary public elementary schools.
(g) In this part of the Table should be entered the remainder of the
epileptic children in the area. i.e., children whose disease is of such a kind
as not to unfit them for attendance at an ordinary public elementary school.
(h) The exact classification of physically detective is admittedly a
matter of difficulty. Valuable information, however, will be obtained if
School Medical Officers will record these defective children as accurately as
possible under the selected sub-headings, taking care that no child is
entered under more than one sub-heading.