View report page

37
Personal hygiene scheme.
For the purpose of assisting at medical inspections, each school nurse is allocated
to a group of schools. Each school in the group is also visited by the school nurse
on a rota, in order that she can carry out the inspection of the personal hygiene of
the children. At each rota visit all the children in the school are so inspected;
each school is visited at least once a term, the schools where conditions are below
normal receiving two or more such rota visits each term. Thus every child is seen
at least three times a year.
In 1934, 1,720,469 examinations of children were made at these rota visits. In
148,960 cases the child was noted as verminous, i.e., in 8.6 per cent. of the examinations,
compared with a percentage of 9.0 on the similar figures for 1933 and 9.8
for 1932.
From the records made on this basis a consistent improvement has been shown in
the condition of the children's personal hygiene year by year; but, in accordance with
the desire of the Board of Education, arrangements were made, by means of a small
index card, to determine the number of individual children found unclean during the
year, thus eliminating the possibility of counting separately the second or third
record of uncleanliness in respect of any one child. The number of individual
children so recorded was 83,207 (about 13 per cent. of the children on the school
rolls compared with 15 per cent. in 1933), a figure which represents all those children
who were noted infested with live vermin or their ova. About 54 per cent. of the
cases in which verminous conditions were recorded at the rota visits are stated to
be infested with nits only.
The bases of the Council's cleansing scheme are emphasis upon the parents'
primary responsibility, followed by compulsion, where necessary, as provided by
section 87 of the Education Act, 1921. In the earlier stages of the procedure
parents are advised of the trouble, and invited to avail themselves of the facilities
provided by the Council. It is only after a child has been seen by at least two
different nurses that a statutory notice is issued to the parents. These notices are
served through the attendance branch of the education officer's department, and are
either handed to the parents in person or forwarded by means of a registered letter.
There are 10 Council centres, 20 borough council centres, and 9 centres
organised by voluntary committees; but, as the last named are limited to head
cleansings, these are not equipped with sterilisers or baths.
The following particulars for 1934 are in respect of the cleansing scheme operated
from the Council's and Borough Councils' centres (as distinct from the " head "
cleansing centres):—
1934 1933
Number of advice cards issued to parents 80,260 85,808
Number of children attending voluntarily at bathing centres after
advice cards 40,079 42,833
Number of statutory notices served in accordance with section 87
of the Education Act, 1921 22,302 23,954
Number attending bathing centres after statutory notices—
(а) voluntarily 4,749 4,970
(b) compulsorily 14,016 15,916
Number of cases in which police court proceedings were taken 465 304
At the head cleansing centres 23,171 cases attended during the year compared
with 25,051 in 1933.
The figures in the above tabular statement are obtained from records kept on a
terminal basis at each of the centres, and, as is the case with the rota inspection figures,
a child may be recorded more than once in the same year. The individual record
cards at the centres show that in 1934 a total of 73,903 children attended the bathing
and head cleansing centres. Not all these children were, however, referred under
various stages of cleansing schemes, but a certain number attended voluntarily
before their departure for the residential schools, country holidays, etc., or at the
request of parents, teachers and others.