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90
BLIND, DEAF, DEFECTIVE AND EPILEPTIC CHILDREN.
Table III gives the number of exceptional children in the
area under each heading. It shows the number of these exceptional
children in each category who are being maintained at certified
schools, those who attend public elementary schools and those
who are not attending any school as at the 31st December last
year. It will be noted that 31 children were being maintained at
certified schools by the Education Committee.
As regards mentally defective children the policy has been
to notify as ineducable children who on attaining seven years of
age have an Intelligence Quotient under 50 per cent. or who after
attaining that age and having had a trial in school for one or two
years have an Intelligence Quotient between 50 and 60 per cent.;
and to keep in parallel or backward classes those with an I.Q.
between 60 and 75 per cent. unless they prove "difficult'' or in
other words show anti-social tendencies, either at home or at school,
when steps are taken to have them admitted to Special Residential
Schools for the feeble-minded. There has therefore been no pressing
need for the provision of a Special Day School for feeble-minded
children.
Proposal in Regard to an Open Air School.
As to physically defective children an account has been given
elsewhere in this report of the treatment of orthopaedic cases who,
when surgical treatment is called for, are admitted to the
Orthopaedic Hospital where they receive special education, and
of the provision made for convalescent treatment of certain children
recovering from acute or chronic illness for whom a stay for a
short period of six weeks or more is required. But there is a
much larger group of children for whom no suitable provision
has yet been made but for whom special education of longer duration
is required. The children alluded to can best be dealt with in
an open air school, the objectives of such a school apart from that
of educating the children being:—
(1) To improve the physique and nutrition of physically
defective or sub-normal children by means of the beneficial
action of sunshine, fresh air and well chosen food.