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8
Cleanliness in the Schools.—Cleanliness inspections were carried out in the schools on
817 occasions during the year 1924, the average number of visits paid to each school by the Health
Visitor being 26. The total number of examinations made was 43,024, and 8.9 per cent, of the
children were found to be nitty or verminous as against 11.4 in 1923. The cleanliness inspections
held at the schools bring to the notice of the Health Nurse many cases which would otherwise not
be reported, and are the chief sources of information as to the cleanly or uncleanly condition of the
children. They also enable the Health Nurse to keep in touch with cases requiring constant supervision
and more co-operation is received from parents in their endeavour to keep the children free
from nits and vermin when they realise that by these regular inspections neglect on their part results
in a warning notice, and may terminate in prosecution if a certain standard of cleanliness is not
maintained. Court proceedings are still being taken in troublesome cases under Section 122 of the
Children Act, 1908 (now Section 87 of the Education Act, 1921), and this fact acts as a deterrent
to parents who might otherwise be neglectful.
In 1924 it was found necessary to institute proceedings only in 17 cases as against 44 in 1923.
The percentage of nitty and verminous children recorded upon routine inspection at the schools
from year to year since 1914 is as follows :—
1914 20%
1915 23%
1916-19 Results not recorded owing to war.
1920 11.9%
1921 9.8%
1922 8.3%
1923 8.2%
1924 7.1%
ABNORMAL CHILDREN.
Under this category are included the following classes of children—merely dull or backward.
Mentally Defective (feeble-minded), Imbecile, Moral Imbecile, Idiot, Physically Defective, Blind
or Partially Blind, Deaf-mute or semi-mute or semi-deaf, and Epileptic. These cases are reported
to the Authority by Parents, Head Teachers, Health Visitors, School Attendance Officers, Hospitals
and similar Institutions, Voluntary Societies and Private Medical Practitioners. They are submitted
to a special medical examination and are placed in a Special Day or Residential School or ordinary
elementary school according to the character and degree of the abnormality.
During the year 1924, 398 special children were examined or re-examined. Of the 105 original
examinations included in the 398 examined, 42 were found to be physically defective, 17 mentally
defective, 4 idiots, 6 blind or partially blind, 7 deaf or partially deaf, 6 epileptics, 19 dull or backward
and 4 normal.
The types of children most difficult to deal with are the dull and backward and those physically
defectives suffering from anaemia and debility and other diseases in an incipient stage.
Dullness and backwardness may be due to defective intelligence, but in many cases it is caused
by impaired vitality due to defective frame, improper feeding and unfavourable environment. If
these children are compelled to attend an ordinary elementary school and more particularly one
where ventilation and lighting are deficient and where the general hygienic conditions are subnormal,
their condition cannot improve and in every probability it will be aggravated. If they are kept away
from their school their education must suffer. What they require is teaching under the best possible
hygienic conditions and this can be accomplished at an open-air school, where the child will be fed
regularly and properly, given an adequate amount of play and rest and treated with sunshine, baths
and exercises in the open air.
The child who is dull or backward but whose general health is good, also requires special
consideration. He cannot receive the individual attention and particular supervision he requires
in a class of an ordinary elementary school suitable to his age, and there are many objections to
older children being taught in classes where the large majority of the children are considerably younger.
In fact these children require special classes for themselves, where the numbers are limited and where
each child can be given tuition suitable to his degree of backwardness. As a beginning it would
probably be best to institute classes for dull and backward children in particular areas and the
children could be drawn from the group of schools in each area.
Physically defective children suffering from anaemia and debility and other diseases in an
incipient stage can only be satisfactorily dealt with when an open-air school is established in Willesden.
At present the more pronounced cases may be sent to a Convalescent Home or Residential Open Air
School, but unless the favourable conditions are maintained after their return from the country,
they are almost certain to drift back again to their former state of health.
Mentally Defective Children.—The law regarding the certification of children suitable
for admission to the Special School for Mentally Defectives presents certain difficulties.
Under the Education Act, 1921, it is the duty of the Local Education Authority to make arrangements
ftir ascertaining what children in their area not being merely dull and backward, are defective, that
is to say, what children by reason of mental defect are incapable of receiving proper benefit from
the instruction in an ordinary public elementary school, but are not incapable by reason of that
defect of receiving benefit from instruction in such classes or schools as may be provided by the Act
for defective children. For the purpose of ascertaining whether a child is defective within the