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APPENDIX
HANDICAPPED PUPILS—SOME NOTES ON
MALADJUSTMENT
Section 8 of the Education Act 1944 lays upon every local
Education Authority the duty to secure that there shall be available
for their area sufficient primary and secondary schools to meet the
varying age, abilities and aptitudes of the children there. It goes on to
mention particular considerations to which authorities must have
regard in fulfilling this duty. One of these is that they must make
provision for pupils suffering from any disability of mind or body by
providing, cither in special schools or otherwise, special educational
treatment, which is defined as education by special methods appropriate
to thr narticular disability from which a child is suffering.
The de; ;tion of handicapped pupils and the selection of the most
severely handicappedfor special schools are examples of the way in
which authcities measure the varying abilities and aptitudes of the
children in their area in order to provide them with the primary or
secondary education suited to their particular needs.
Section 33 and 34 of the Act deal with the determination and
education pupils requiring special educational treatment, and the
Regulations rising (The School Health Service and Handicapped
Pupils Regulations). Part III Section 14 contains the several categories
and definiti of handicapped pupils.
The caterories are as follows:—
(a) 2nd pupils; (b) Partially sighted pupils; (c) Deaf pupils;
(d) Parerly deaf pupils; (e) Educationally Sub-normal pupils;
(/) Epiletic pupils; (g) Maladjusted pupils; (h) Physically handicapped
pupils; (g) Pupils suffering from speech defect; (j) Delicate
pupils.
The section i defines maladjusted pupils as follows:—
Ma justed pupils, that is to say, pupils who show evidence
of emotinal instability or psychological disturbance and require
special education national treatment in order to effect their personal,
social or educational re-adjustment.
Maladjustement is a term that came into general use during the
war to describe children who were found to be difficult to billet because
of their distributed or disorderly behaviour. It is characteristic of
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