View report page

214
" Bad housing, bad home environment and economic
hardship may be palliated and even ameliorated through
nursery schools and classes; but their remedy calls for
other action by the State and Local Authorities. The
provision of schools, whatever be the scale on which it is
made, so long as these conditions survive, leaves untouched
the problem of the child's early environment."—
(Hadow Report).
From these official statements it is clear that the fundamental
purpose and function of the nursery school or class is
the safeguarding of the health of young children rather than
their formal education, and that—until the available accommodation
in special nursery classes is sufficient to meet the
requests for admission made by parents—the selection of
children for admission should be made on the recommendation
of the Maternity and Child Welfare Authority's medical officers.
In the past many attempts have been made to draw an
arbitrary line of demarcation between the nursery school and
the nursery class with regard to their respective origin, organisation
and status. Nursery schools are ad hoc establishments
designed, built, equipped and staffed to suit their special
purpose; whereas nursery classes have generally been makeshift
arrangements in infants' schools not designed originally
for pre-school infants. From the health point of view, however,
both forms of institution have the same purpose—to ensure
adequate medical supervision and provide satisfactory conditions
for nurture in its widest sense. They are both extensions
of child welfare work from the school side designed to
bridge the gap in the medical supervision of pre-school children
between the age when they cease to attend the infant welfare
centre and the age of compulsory school attendance. If an
education authority so desires, it can establish nursery classes
quite as suitable for their special purpose as the most up-to-date
nursery school ; and this some authorities have done and are
now doing.
The Maternity and Child Welfare Authority is statutorily
responsible for the health and welfare of children who have not
attained the age of five years and are not being educated in
schools recognised by the Board of Education. So long,
however, as attendance at school below five years of age is
voluntary, the nursery school or class cannot be regarded as