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This means that 54.8 per cent. of the children on the registers were
medically examined during the year. The average attendance at
the schools was 84.7 per cent.
Findings of School Medical Inspection.
Table II gives the number of defects noted on medical inspection
at the schools and at the special inspections or re-inspections.
Among the 3,589 routine children examined there were 1,277
defects requiring treatment and 1,022 requiring to be kept under
observation without treatment; and among 2,140 children specially
examined there were found 1,593 defects requiring treatment and
148 requiring to be kept under observation. Of the 3,589 children
examined at the routine inspections, 514, or 14.3 per cent., were
found to require treatment for defective conditions other than
uncleanliness and dental disease.
(a) Uncleanliness.—The heads of all the girls attending
public elementary schools were inspected three times in the year
after the usual school holidays. Of the 19,276 children examined,
342, or 1.7 per cent, were excluded on account of verminous condition.
There were 43 other children with verminous heads found
at the routine medical inspection in the schools, and 22 found at
special inspections after being referred for examination by the
head-teachers. In addition 16 children were found to have
verminous condition of the body.
No summonses were issued under the School Attendance
Byelaws for non-attendance owing to exclusion for verminous
condition.
The percentage of verminous children is very low and is due
to the energetic steps taken to impress upon the parents the necessity
of care in keeping the heads of the children in a cleanly condition.
It has never been the policy of the Education Committee to cleanse
the heads of the children. The Committee have insisted upon the
parents performing their duty and have very properly issued
summonses under the School Attendance Byelaws against those
who, after a warning, have failed to do their duty and have sent
their children to school in a condition necessitating exclusion. In
the table which follows the improvement of the children since
1923 is evident. The slight rise in 1927 was occasioned by the