View report page

Education Act, 1944 and authorises the cancellation of the report where the child on reexamination
is found to be educable. During 1959 four reports were cancelled and the
children admitted to special schools.
Home and hospital tuition—Section 56 of the Education Act, 1944 authorises education
'otherwise than at school', and covers teaching at home and in hospital. At the end of
1959 a special analysis was made of the morbid condition of the 63 pupils then in receipt
of home tuition. In many of the cases there were multiple defects, and only the major
condition is quoted in the following analysis:
Tuberculosis 2 Heart disease 2
Post-poliomyelitis 3 Ulcerative colitis 1
Ganglioneuroma 1 Fibrocystic pancreas 4
Cerebral dysthymia 1 Nephritis 6
Obesity 1 Osteochondritis 1
Haemophilia 1 Muscular dystrophy . 3
E.S.N 4 Spina bifida 3
Maladjusted 11 Ectopic bladder 2
Cerebral palsy 2 Fragilitis ossium 1
Epilepsy 1 Fractured leg 2
Blindness 9 —
Rheumatic fever 2 Total 63
Hospital tuition falls into three categories; hospital schools, permanent teaching groups
in hospitals, individual hospital tuition. Without special enquiries directed to a large
number of hospitals, both in and out county, it would not be possible to give a full analysis
of the children concerned; but the following estimates have been made of the average
number of London children receiving hospital tuition:
London hospitals 230
Surrey hospitals 200
Kent hospitals 70
Middlesex hospitals 50
Essex hospitals 40
Other area hospitals 40
Voluntary hospital schools 30
Total 660
In addition, at any one time, there will be a number of children in hospitals without
permanent teaching arrangements, whose stay is too short to warrant individual tuition
being arranged.
During December an analysis was made of the children who were known to have been
'out of school' for three months or more. These children form part of the group discussed
above, and the analysis gives an indication of the conditions necessitating long absence
from school due to illness:
Tuberculosis (all forms) 35
Post-poliomyelitis 9
Other infectious diseases 5
Anaemia 3
Diseases of the nervous system 38
Eye diseases 6
Ear, nose and throat conditions 13
Lung disease (not T.B.) 21
Rheumatism, chorea and rheumatic heart disease 53
Other heart diseases 8
Orthopaedic conditions 30
Skin diseases 12
All other conditions (including traumatic and not known) .. 107
Total 340
103