View report page

Millesden Local education Authority.
REPORT
on the
Provision of Spectacles.
To the Chairman and Members of the
School Management and General Purposes Committee.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In accordance with your instructions, I have the honour to
submit the following Report on the question of providing Spectacles
for necessitous children in cases where careful medical examination
has shown such provision to be necessary.
In the course of medical inspection during 1909 over 40 per cent,
of the children examined were found to have defective vision, while
seriously defective eyesight was found to be present in about 8 per
cent, of the children examined.
The defect in practically all the cases can be remedied by
wearing proper glasses. Where defective vision is discovered the
parents are notified of the fact, and they are recommended to have
the refractive error estimated in order that proper glasses may be
prescribed. Many of the parents take the trouble to have this done,
but those in poorer circumstanoes find it impossible to procure the
spectacles which have been prescribed. The cost, which ranges from
2/6 to 7/6, although beyond the compass of many of the parents, is
certainly less than that which has been incurred in procuring the
prescription, and as this has been provided partly in the initial cost