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Medical inspection at secondary and trade schools.
In the maintained secondary schools medical inspection has been carried out
by the school medical staff over a very long period of years.
The pupils are, in accordance with the instructions of the Board of Education,
inspected in detail on entrance, again at the age of 12, and at the age of 15; in the
intervening years the records of all pupils are reviewed, but a detailed examination
is only carried out when there is some special indication or request.
The figures subsequently analysed are derived only from the schools where the
medical inspections are carried out by the Council's own staff. No detailed reports
of medical inspections are received from the schools at which the pupils are examined
by the doctor appointed by the governors, but the record cards of all scholarship
children examined are sent for the school medical officer's information at the end of
each term.
Including students in training colleges, 14,345 pupils were examined during the
year, an increase of 716 compared with the previous year. Amongst these the
number of routine age group examinations was 8,151 and of special examinations
6,224. Further details of the distribution of these students in the various institutions
are given in the Appendix (table VII). In addition to the above, the records of 4,128
pupils not in the age groups were reviewed, but detailed examinations were not
deemed necessary. As might be expected, the children in the secondary schools
show a general superiority in physical fitness over children in the elementary schools,
but in one case the clothing was found to be poor and in one infestation with head
vermin was noted.
Dental
condition.
The percentage of children, aged 12, with sound teeth was: boys, 82.5; girls,
78.8; but at the age of 15 this percentage had decreased by .4 per cent. among boys
and increased by .6 per cent among girls. Of cases of widespread dental decay
where 4 or more teeth were affected, the percentage among boys and girls of 12
years old was 1.7 and 1.3, respectively, compared with 1.4 and 1.0 in elementary
schools at this age.
Vision.
At the age of 12, 71.1 per cent. of the boys and 68.5 per cent. of the girls were
able to pass the vision test, compared with 69.2 and 65.8 in elementary schools;
but, whereas in elementary schools the vision of children leaving is better
than that of the children of 12, the reverse is the case in the secondary schools,
suggesting that the more serious strain in reading has a detrimental effect upon the eyesight.
In secondary schools 16.6 per cent. of the boys and 19.6 per cent. of girls
were wearing glasses at the age of 12, but at the age of 15 the percentages were 18.7
boys and 22.9 girls.
In spite of the much greater percentage wearing glasses at the age of 15, the
number of pupils passing the vision test remained approximately the same, viz.,
70.2 per cent. among boys and 67.5 per cent. among girls.
Care of
eyesight in
secondary
schools.
Nutrition.
In September, 1926, sight-saving education for myopic pupils was begun at
Clapton and Peckham (now Honor Oak) county secondary schools for girls and at
the Raine's foundation school for boys and still continues.
The nutritional state of the pupils in the secondary schools, as returned by the
school doctors, reverses the sex incidence of subnutrition found in elementary schools.
In the elementary schools, girls at each age are better nourished than boys, but
in the secondary schools, while only 4.8 per cent. of the boys are reported as subnormal,
amongst girls, 6 per cent. are so returned.
On the much smaller figures supplied from the routine inspections in secondary
schools, there is more room for the personal equations of the examiners to obtrude
themselves, still the figures suggest that the prevailing sentiment in favour of
" slimming " affects the question. It is stated that many girls refuse milk in school
giving the reason that it will make them " fat."
Defects.
The pupils in secondary schools are, as far as scholarship cases are concerned,
selected children, and no child is admitted who is deemed incapable by reason of illhealth
of benefiting from the education provided. Cases of heart disease, defects
of nose and throat, and ear disease are rarer than in elementary schools, where there