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106
There were, at the end of 1928, 68 mentally defective children
who have been certified as requiring special school education,
apart from 9 in attendance at Mossford School. Nineteen of these
children were at home, not receiving any education at all.
The question of dealing with these children has been before
the Committee on several occasions, but the matter has been
deferred, pending the publication of the report of the Special
Committee appointed by the Board of Education to review the
education of mentally defective children in this country.
There are only 17 children in Ilford who are so physically
defective as to require special school education, and 8 of these
were sufficiently fit to attend an ordinary school if special
precautions were taken as to their welfare.
The School Medical Service was inspected and reported upon
by one of the Medical Officers to the Board of Education in April,
and in this report he stated:—
"The Board are glad to learn that a satisfactory volume of
medical inspection and treatment is carried out in an efficient manner.
They desire, however, to invite the Authority's attention to the following
points:—
"(1) The Authority's dental scheme is at present limited in
scope. The Board's experience is that a whole-time school dentist
is able to carry out the dental inspection and treatment of about
5,000 children in average attendance. On this basis the Authority
would require for a complete scheme the services of about 2 wholetime
dentists. It is hoped, therefore, that when the Authority
find themselves in a position to develop their School Medical
Service, an increase in the strength of the Dental Staff will be
one of the first extensions to be made."
"(2) The importance of systematic provision for the orthopaedic
treatment of cripple children should be kept in mind, and the
Authority might consider the desirability of co-operating in any
scheme which may be formulated by the Local Education Authority
for Essex in corvnecticm with this form of treatment."