View report page

75
INSPECTION OF SCHOOL CHILDREN.
(Special Report presented to the Council on December 2nd,.
1907.)
For many years past the question of the inspection of
school children has engaged the attention of Medical Officers
of Health, and others, but, until recently, the subject has
been more of the nature of a counsel of perfection, rather
than of a practical possibility.
On the Continent, and in America, systematic inspection
of school children takes place; and it would appear that
England and Wales are about to follow suit, as a new Act of
Parliament, the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act,
1907, which received the Royal Assent on 28th August last,
states, in Section 13, that the powers and duties of a Local
Education Authority, under Part iii., of the Education Act of
1902, shall include :—
"the duty to provide for the medical inspection of
"children immediately before, or at the time of, or as
"soon as possible after, their admission to a public
"elementary school, and on such other occasions as the
"Board of Education direct, and the power to make
"such arrangements as may be sanctioned by the Board
"of Education for attending to the health and physical
"condition of the children educated in public elementary
"schools."
This Section comes into force on the 1st January, 1908,
and, as far as London is concerned, would appear to throw
this important duty of compulsory medical inspection of
children in elementary schools upon the London County
Council, as the Education Authority for London, thereby
introducing dual control again in administrative public
health work. The Metropolitan Borough Councils are the
Health Authorities for London, and with them should rest
the responsibility for the systematic medical inspection, not
only of school children in elementary schools, but also of
pupils in secondary schools and training colleges. It is to be
hoped that some scheme of harmonious working as between