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Under Regulation 53 of the Handicapped Pupils and School Health Service Regulations,
1945, it was required that medical officers should be approved by the Minister of
Education if they were to be employed for the ascertainment of pupils needing education
in a special school as educationally sub-normal. This requirement was slightly modified
by Regulation 11 of the Handicapped Pupils and School Health Service Regulations,
1953, so as to make it unnecessary for an authority to ask the Minister's approval in the
case of a medical officer who has already been approved for similar employment by
another authority.
Intelligence
and
intelligence
quotients
Intelligence is measured by well-standardised tests, that is, tests which have been
given to such a large number of children under identical conditions that the performance
of any individual child can be reliably compared with the normal performance level of
other children of the same age group. These tests aim at assessing natural ability rather
that acquired attainment. The units of measurement are:
(a) Mental age. This is the standard that at least 50-60 per cent. of children of a
given age reach on a well-standardised intelligence test and is therefore taken as the
mental age of that group. If a child reaches a level that is average for children of 10 years
his mental age is said to be 10 years, regardless of his actual age.
(b) Intelligence quotient. In order to compare the intellectual capacity of children at
different ages, the ratio between a child's mental age and his actual or chronological age
is expressed as a percentage.
In terms of the educational provision they require at different intellectual levels,
physically normal children may be grouped roughly as follows:
I.Q. under 50: defective and ineducable. Provision in day occupation centres, or
residential homes and institutions for mental defectives.
I.Q. 50-75: very inferior ability. Provision in day or boarding schools for educationally
sub-normal children.
I.Q. 75-84: inferior ability. Provision in ordinary schools with special educational
treatment, or, in special circumstances where home circumstances or
behaviour problems make it desirable, in E.S.N, boarding schools.
I.Q. 85-94: low average ability
I.Q. 95-104: average ability
I.Q. 105-114: high average ability
provision in ordinary schools.
The dividing lines in this classification can vary in individual cases. For example, a child
with an I.Q. of 70 to 75 may well succeed in an ordinary school, with special educational
treatment, if he is a stable personality and other circumstances are favourable.
Considerable statistical evidence exists to show that for the vast majority of children,
the I.Q. fluctuates very little, and that it is a reliable predictive measure, at least over a
period of two or three years.
The following arc the types of intelligence test:
Verbal tests: The main test of intelligence normally used by school medical
officers for the routine assessments of the I.Q.'s of children of school is the StanfordBinet
intelligence scale as revised by Terman and Merrill.
Performance tests: A performance test, such as the Porteous Maze, does not
involve use of words and it is not covered by school knowledge.
Non-verbal tests: Raven's progressive matrices involve neither use of words,
acquired knowledge nor manipulation of material.
The Weschler scale, which is both verbal and non-verbal, is being considered
for increased use.
It is with children who are found to be educationally sub-normal that most of the
appeals to the Minister of Education against the Council's decision arise. Between the
ages of five and seven years an appreciable number of children are ascertained and enter
primary special schools. Doubt is sometimes expressed at the accuracy or the validity of
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