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8
Towels.
I was asked to report upon the question " what is considered an adequate number
of towels from a hygienic point of view which should be supplied to an ordinary
elementary school for the use of the pupils ? " To such a query it is not possible to
reply without qualification.
According to the strict demands of hygiene, common roller towels would be
condemned and the answer would be that the number of towels required would
vary according to the number of ablutioners, each of whom should have his own
separate hand towel changed at least weekly.
Such a standard, however, is clearly at present unattainable. A great deal
depends upon the policy adopted in encouraging or discouraging ablutions at school.
In some schools the children come to school very clean and the need for ablution,
except under very special circumstances, does not arise; in other schools the
children are habitually dirty and a great deal more washing at school is necessary.
In order to obtain some idea of the general practice, I requested the school
doctors to make a report on the practice in this respect in all schools visited by them
during the month of November. As the result I received reports in regard to
upwards of 500 schools or departments. Taking 50 consecutive reports in each
case on infants', girls' and boys' departments in Council's schools the following
results with regard to towels issued weekly are obtained :—

On an average, therefore, there are issued in the London elementary schools
about one towel for every 40 children or one towel per class per week. But the
practice differs through a very wide range in different schools. Thus, a senior boys'
department with 436 on the roll and 150 ablutions a week has 12 roller towels issued
per week, while in a girls' department with 312 on the roll only three roller towels
are issued and these are described as being in a very dirty condition at the end of
the week.
The difficulties of estimating what a reasonable number of towels should be is
shown by the report on two neighbouring schools by the same school doctor ; in
the girls' department of one with 451 children on the roll, 300 ablutions are carried
out a week and five roller towels are held to be sufficient, while in the other school
in the senior girls' department with 286 children on the roll there are 2,500 ablutions
a week and the issue of 12 roller towels a week is considered " not nearly enough."
At one girls' department with 170 children, only two roller towels are issued weekly,
but the rule at this school is that each girl brings to school her own toilet bag ; at
another girls' department with 291 girls on the roll six roller towels are issued a
week, but here again the children are encouraged to bring their own towels.
Only a few elementary schools issue the equivalent of two roller towels weekly
for each class, but this standard is nearly always adopted by central school departments.
Although it is impossible, as will be understood from the foregoing, to lay
down a definite standard at present owing to the widely varying needs and policies
prevailing from school to school, it is very clear that in some schools conditions are
unsatisfactory, and when one department can supply 12 clean roller towels a week,
it is difficult to see why another department, similar in all respects and receiving the
same sum for general requisitions, can only supply four.
When the education officer visited Canada some little time ago he found that
the use of paper towels in schools was general in the Dominion. In consequence, an
experiment has been made in two schools in London in the use of paper towels.
One of these came within the scope of this enquiry, and this school alone of the 500
upon which reports were made gives an impression of conforming to proper hygienic
requirements in regard to ablutionary practice. As the experiment is still in
progress it is not desirable entirely to prejudge the results, but it may be that it is
in this direction that the solution of a problem, which is hygienically a serious one in
London schools, will be found.