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In considering provision for dull and backward children, it is necessary to consider precisely
the types of children who are educationally below normal. These are:—
(1) The mentally defective child as defined by the Mental Deficiency Act, 1913.
(2) The mentally defective child as defined by the Education Act, 1921.
(3) The dull child.
(4) The backward child.
(1) The Mentally Defective Child as Defined, by the Mental Deficiency Act, 1913.
Section 1 (c) of the Mental Deficiency Act, 1913, states as follows
"Feeble-minded persons ; that is to say, persons in whose case there exists from birth
or from an early age mental defectiveness not amounting to imbecility, yet so pronounced
that they require care, supervision, and control for their own protection
or for the protection of others, or, in the case of children, that they by reason of such
defectiveness apeear to be permanently incapable of receiving proper benefit from the
instruction in ordinary schools.
The Board of Education issued revised model arrangements, dated 31st August, 1914, under
the Elementary Education (Defective and Epileptic Children) Act, 1899, and the Mental Deficiency
Act, 1913.
(Note.—The Elementary Education (Defective and Epileptic Children) Act, 1899, has now been
repealed and substantially re-enacted in the Education Act, 1921.)
In these arrangements the following certificate requires to be furnished by the Certifying
Officer to the Local Education Authority : "I certify that this child, not being merely dull or backward,
and not being an idiot, or imbecile, or a moral imbecile, is feeble-minded within the meaning
of the Mental Deficiency Act, 1913, but is not incapable by reason of mental defect of receiving benefit
from instruction in a special school or class under the Education Act, 1921."
A normal individual must be able to form a judgment and have the capacity of looking ahead
and forming a plan. He must also be able to shape his conduct and control his actions in accordance
with the plan. Any breakdown in this sequence is an indication of feeble-mindedness.
The various class of mental defectives mentioned in this Act (Idiot, Imbecile, Feeble-minded,
Moral Imbecile) are defined as shewing a social or biological incapacity. This incapacity is quite
apparent to the ordinary individual in the two grosser forms of defectiveness (Idiot and Imbecile).
In the feeble-minded and more particularly the higher grades it is not so evident. A feeble-minded
person can adapt himself to his surroundings, he has a certain degree of intelligence, but he lacks
wisdom. He can earn money, but he cannot spend it to his own advantage, in fact he requires care,
supervision and control.
A certain proportion of feeble-minded children are ineducable, and the remainder receive the
greatest benefit by instruction in manual work, e.g., boot-making, carpentry, metal work, rug-making,
cane chair making, needlework, etc. It is at such occupations that the feeble-minded person has the
greatest chance of earning his own living.
(2) The Mentally Defective Child as defined by the Education Act, 1921.
Section 55 (1) (a) of the Education Act, 1921, states as follows:—
" (a) what children in their area, not being imbecile and not being merely dull or backward,
are defective, that is to say, what children by reason of mental or physical defect
are incapable of receiving proper benefit from the instruction in the ordinary public
elementary schools, but are not incapable by reason of that defect of receiving benefit
from instruction in such special class or school as under this Part of this Act may
be provided for defective children ; "
The form of certificate prescribed by the Board of Education for the purposes of this section
is as follows "(a) For Defective Children—I., A.B., a duly qualified practitioner, approved by the
Board of Education, certify that Y.Z., not being imbecile and not being merely dull or backward, is,
by reason of (1) mental or (2) physical defect, incapable of receiving proper benefit from the instruction
in an ordinary public elementary school, but is not incapable, by reason of such defect, of receiving
benefit from instruction in a certified special class or school."
The children in this category shew three or more years retardation in ordinary school subjects.
They are generally well-behaved, able to take an intelligent interest in games and able to hold their
own in every-day life. The parents of these children usually state that apart from backwardness
at school no other abnormality has been noticed. There is, of course, a natural antipathy on the part
of all parents to admit that their child is mentally defective and a still greater antipathy to consent
to their child being sent to the "silly" school.
The term "mental defect" in this Act may mean, as far as it is possible to interpret any Act
of Parliament without a decision by the Courts, an educational disability only, but this view is not
accepted by all authorities. If the term is interpreted to mean a mental defect similar to that needed
for certification under the Mental Deficiency Act, difficulties arise as a child with an educational
retardation without a mental defect could not legally be compelled to attend a Special School.