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255
Municipal Buildings,
Lavender Hill, S.W.
11th January, 1908.
REPORT OF MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH AS TO
THE ATTENDANCE OF CHILDREN UNDER FIVE YEARS
OF AGE IN PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS.
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen,—
In accordance with your instructions, I beg to submit my
report on the question of the attendance of children under 5
years of age in the public elementary schools. When I had
the honour of being invited, as previously reported to the Health
Committee, by the Consultative Committee of the Board of
Education to give evidence on this important subject in November
of last year, I dealt with that point of view of most importance
to me as your Medical Officer of Health, i.e., the bearing of such
attendance as regards the incidence of, and mortality from,
infectious disease—notifiable and non-notillable—and 1 propose,
therefore, to restrict my report largely to this aspect of the
question, referring only briefly to the other to me less immediately
important matters concerned with this subject.
There is no doubt that the consensus of opinion amongst
Medical Officers of Health will be found to be strongly in favour
of legislation which w ill raise the age before which children should
not be allowed to attend school to at least 5 years, but in the
interest of the children themselves, and of the nation as a whole,
the raising of the age limit to 6 or even 7 years would be an increased
advantage from the points of view of their mental and
physical development and the prevention of the spread of infectious
disease.
It can hardly be said that the attendance at school of children
under the age of 5 years can be productive of any real value
from the educational point of view. Up to this period, and even