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148
less than 66.3 per cent. of the children examined being attended
by their parents or guardians.
The teachers, too, have continued to take the remarkable
interest they have hitherto shown in this work. The routine medical
inspections afford a splendid opportunity for co-operation between
the teaching and the medical staff.
Last year I pointed out that routine medical inspection is a
census of the health of the school population, and that for the
purposes of this census we must examine everybody who comes
within the categories laid down by the Board of Education. It is
just as essential for us to have the healthy people on this census list
as the unhealthy, and therefore we want to examine those who are
in perfect health quite as much as the others.
I am credibly informed that the National Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Children have dealt with 18 cases. The
following table shows the way in which these cases have been dealt
with:—
Total number of cases investigated 18
. (a) Prosecutions 1
(b) Warnings 14
(c) Otherwise dealt with 3
In addition to the above, the local inspector, so I am advised,
has paid 126 supervisory visits.
(18) BLIND, DEAF, DEFECTIVE AND EPILEPTIC
CHILDREN.
We continue to report to you the number of these cases you
have, but, with you, we regret that there is no sufficient accommodation
throughout the country to deal with these cases after
they have been found out and classified.
It is obvious to me that if these children are to be housed in
suitable institutions, each institution accommodating, so far as
practicable, children with the same degree of disability, mental or
physical, these institutions require to be of a national character.