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96
the organisation is very good, the difficulty of finding any
particular card of a child who has left school appears to be
great, and application for such is not always successful. The
Secretary of Education has evolved a very good method, and
he is able to at once put his hand upon the record card of
any child who has been examined.
The rule is for a card to be made out for every child immediately
upon admission to the school. On this the teacher
is expected to record various facts which can be obtained from
the parent or other responsible person who brings the child
for admission. Previous infectious diseases are then recorded,
and it is the teachers' duty to enter upon the card a record
of any infectious disease occurring after admission. This
card is kept in the folio for the class to which he goes. Each
week the Head Teacher sends to the Education Office a return
of all the children who have been admitted to, or who have
left, the school during the week. In the case of those who
have left, he also sends their medical inspection cards, which
are then filed in alphabetical order. If the child has gone to
another of the Council's schools the card is sent there, or
upon receipt of a request from another Education Authority
into whose district the child has gone the card is forwarded.
With regard to those children who have been admitted
from other districts, the return also shows the school from
which they have come; the Education Office thereupon makes
application to the Education Authority of that district for
the medical inspection card, and on receipt passes it on to the
school in which the child has been enrolled. In many
cases, however, where there is good evidence that the child
has been previously examined in the schools of other authorities,
we have not been successful in obtaining its medical inspection
card.
[The question of keeping fuller records of children suffering
from various defects is at present under consideration].