View report page

This quotation is of great interest as it indicates how boarding placement in schools or
hostels had been developed as a solution to the 'problems' of evacuees; and also in that
it foreshadowed powers which were to come under the Education Act, 1944.
(c) Effect on developments of the problem case conferences—The problem case conferences
played an important part in the early days in putting forward recommendations to the
Education Committee for the provision of new services for the maladjusted child. The
conferences' first annual report, for the year 1944/45, contained the following suggestions :
(i) there is a need for good foster-homes and residential schools for children with
behaviour difficulties caused by maladjustment to home surroundings;
(ii) special classes for dull and backward children are required, and also facilities for
giving special coaching to individual children retarded through long absence from
school.
Similarly the conferences' annual report for 1946/47 recommended :
(i) more residential accommodation in the form of hostels or foster-homes is urgently
required for maladjusted children to obviate delay in placing the children;
(ii) more boarding accommodation (not grammar) is required for children with
unsuitable home conditions;
(iii) backward children recommended for child guidance treatment should have at
least one term in a special class or special coaching before such treatment is begun, and
(iv) a residential unit should be established for observation of difficult cases and to
which children can also be sent for a change of environment.
The first day special classes for maladjusted pupils were set up in division 5 in June, 1944,
on the direct initiative of the local 'problem' case conference.
In 1946 the division 8 conference, concerned about the influence of the parental factor
in some cases, invited representatives of care workers, N.S.P.C.C., child guidance, teachers,
housing managers, etc., to discuss the problem of contact with the non co-operative parent.
These examples are illustrative of the point already made that the value of the case
conference procedure extended far beyond its function of a 'screening' device for selecting
children for treatment in clinics.
(d) Education Act, 1944—
(i) A fundamental step forward in the attitude towards the treatment of the maladjusted
child came with the Education Act, 1944, one of the basic principles of which is that every
child is to be educated in accordance with his age, ability and aptitude. Some children
require special educational treatment either in ordinary or in special schools because they
suffer from disabilities of body or mind including emotional or psychological troubles,
and the Regulations issued under the Act included 'maladjusted' as one of the several
categories of pupils for whom special educational treatment was to be provided. All
subsequent developments derive from powers conferred on local education authorities
under this Act.
(ii) In 1946 the Ministry of Education issued Pamphlet No. 5 entitled 'Special Educational
Treatment', which was
"intended for the guidance of local education authorities and teachers in the discharge
of a difficult and important duty, which has the dual claim of succour to the afflicted
and practical value to the community
This pamphlet was an important and stimulating document and, in its paragraphs
dealing with the maladjusted child, gives a clear indication of the several ways in which
special education could be provided. It discussed remedial teaching, day special schools,
boarding out, boarding homes and boarding schools, as well as action taken by the teachers
of the child's own school, or transfer of the child from his own school to another, all of
which are methods which have been subject to development in the ensuing years.
148