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8
Total attending Schools :—
In 1899 16133
„ 1900 15246
„ 1901 17674
„ 1902 18175
„ 1903 19184
„ 1904 19748
„ 1905 19515
The abolition of the use of slates in the Schools has, I am
glad to be able to report, been followed by the abolition of the use
of Plasticine. Instead of this, clay is now used for modelling
purposes, with the additional very wise precaution that the clay,
when done with for the day, is made into a lump and kept in a
cloth damp with Sanitas disinfectant. The disinfectant is also
renewed from time to time, and also mixed with the clay.
I still hope that the suggestion made in my Report for 1904
will be adopted, and each pupil be given a box in which to keep all
his or her pencils, pens, rubber, &c., so that pencils the ends of
which have been chewed, besides being handled, by children
suffering perhaps from some infectious ailment may not be regularly
handed on to the healthy ones to use.
AGE OF PUPILS.
No children between the ages of 3 and 4 years have been
admitted to the Schools this year.
Though this is a move in the right direction, I am still of
opinion that the age limit of entry is much too young, and that no
child under the age of 6 should be allowed to attend the Council's
Schools. After the age of 5 children are much less subject to
measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, and whooping cough than
before.