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19
of the school children. The mothers come to medical inspection
in a high proportion of pases; the Head Teachers are always
present at medical inspection; the Chief School Attendance
Officer attends the School Medical Officer's special clinic weekly;
Head Teachers, the School Medical Officer and Chief School
Attendance Officer attend the monthly meetings of the Care
Committees.
17—BLIND, DEAF, DEFECTIVE AND EPILEPTIC
CHILDREN—TABLE III.
Ascertainment of Exceptional Children.—The School
Medical Officer has no more difficult or responsible duty than the
ascertainment of children who are defective within the meaning of
Part V. of the Education Act, 1921.
Table III. at the end of this Report is the annual return of
these ''exceptional children" in the form prescribed by the Board
of Education. In order to assist members of the Education
Authority to appreciate fully the importance of this table, I have
appended to it certain "Notes on Table III." which the Board
furnish to School Medical Officers to guide them in the work of
compiling the table. Particular attention is directed to the
following considerations:—
(1) The table represents the number of defective children on the
last day of the calendar year. (See note a.)
(2) The definitions of blind, deaf, defective and epileptic children
should be very carefully borne in mind. (See note a.) In
each category the defect (physical or mental) is of such a degree
as to render the child "incapable of receiving proper benefit
from the instruction in the ordinary public elementary
schools."
(3) Note (c) make it quite clear that none of the children in Table
III. (except children suffering from epilepsy which is not severe)
should, in fact, be attending public elementary schools. They
are children who, in the opinion of the School Medical Officer,
are so defective as to be "incapable of receiving proper benefit
from the instruction in the public elementary schools," and
should therefore be admitted to Special Schools. The form of
the table, with its headings and sub-headings, together with the