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School meals and milk
The Ministry of Education asked for a return for a typical day of the total number of
(i) day school children who had school dinners and (ii) children who had school milk.
The day selected for the census was 20 September, or the nearest normal school day thereto.
The figures are set out below with those for 1959 in brackets.
Number of Number who took
Type of school children school dinners
present On payment Free Total %
Secondary 173,092 105,855 7,237 113,092 65.34
(175,991) (107,078) (7,068) (114,146) (64.85)
Primary 202,240 103,145 11,880 115,025 56.88
(213,110) (101,842) (11,766) (113,608) (53.31)
Special 5,545 4,473 1,011 5,484 98.90
(5,728) (4,647) (1,023) (5,670) (98.98)
Nursery 1,480 933 95 1,028 98.66*
(1,551) (982) (106) (1,088) (97.84)
382,357 214,406 20,223 234,629 61.37
(396,380) (214,549) (19,963) (234,512) (59.22)
* Percentage of 1,042 children, as 438 children attended half time and did not have school dinners.
The Ministry was informed that 318,678 children in Council maintained schools took
milk on the selected day(s) compared with 337,825 in September, 1959. Of 30,532 children
present in independent schools 22,776 had milk under the scheme.

Vision
Visual acuity standards expressed as percentages of the numbers of children whose eyes
were tested are set out in the following table.
Compared with 1959 the same general pattern is evident. At all ages except nine, proportionately
fewer girls than boys have 6/6 vision without glasses and proportionately
more girls are referred for treatment, a customary feature of this aspect of school medical
inspection. The rate of reference for treatment is highest at age 11 for both boys and girls,
after which it declines slightly. The peak age for reference of children without glasses is 10
but for children wearing glasses the rate tends to increase with age.
The vision of children under seven years of age is not tested as a routine, hence this age
group is a biased sample and too much reliance should not be placed on the results. The
difference in the percentage referred for treatment in this group compared with that reported
in 1959 is due to a different method of calculation. In 1959 all children referred for treatment
were included but in 1960 the table has been restricted to those children whose visual
acuity was recorded.
Of the children medically inspected 0.6 per cent. were noted for treatment of squint,
the same as in 1957, 1958 and 1959. The percentage ranged from 1.4 in the entrant group
to 0.1 in the leaver group.
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