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was said to be excellent, in 62.88 normal, in 11.59 slightly subnormal,
and in 0.42 bad. If columns A and 15 are taken together
and columns C and 1), it will be seen that in 87.99 per cent. of the
children the nutrition was either excellent or normal, while in 12.01
per cent. it was either sub-normal or bad. The corresponding
figures for the previous year were 87.35 and 12.64. These figures
are on the whole satisfactory, and show that there is no evidence of
very serious malnutrition among the elementary school population,
but there is still obvious room for improvement.
If the figures for the different age-groups are examined separately
it will be seen that as in previous years, those for the first two
groups, the entrants and the eight-year-old children are not so
good as those for the third age-group, the twelve-year-old children
or the "other routine inspections," many of whom are children
of thirteen or fourteen years. The nutrition of the children leaving
school is very definitely better than that of children in their early
years at school.
Every opportunity is taken by the School Medical Officers of
advising parents or guardians as to the care and nutrition of their
children, the advice given relating not only to the actual food supplied,
but to feeding habits, insufficient sleep, discipline in the
home, and all other factors involved in the question of nutrition.
Where poverty in the home is a cause of malnutrition, help is given
by the provision of free milk in school, free dinners at the centre,
or provision of cod-liver oil. In many cases help is given by sending
the child to a convalescent home.
A factor of very great importance to the nutrition of the school
children is the advantage taken of the daily supply of milk at halfprice
by the Milk Marketing Board. I am glad to say that an
increasing number of children avail themselves of this provision,
and at the end of the year the number being supplied regularly
with milk at school was more than two-thirds of the number on the
registers of all the elementary schools. In addition, about 250
children are supplied with free milk throughout the year on medical
grounds. It is obvious that the milk-drinking habit is becoming
strongly established among the school children and I am very grateful
to the head teachers and staffs of the schools generally for the
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