View report page

quite suitable. The same difficulty has. arisen in connection with
St. Mary's Junior and Senior Mixed School at Russell Road. As
this school is situated quite near the Pelham Road Health
Centre, the medical inspection of these scholars was carried out
there.
5 FINDINGS OF MEDICAL INSPECTION.
In Table IIA (which is appended) is given a list of all defects
found during medical inspection, whether routine or non-routine.
Table IIB gives the number of individual children found at the
routine medical inspection to require treatment, excluding
uncleanliness, and dental diseases.
1,713 children were examined at the routine medical
inspection. 311 or 18.1% were found to be suffering from
defects (excluding uncleanliness and dental diseases) requiring
treatment. The percentage of defects was found to be slightly
higher amongst the "intermediates" than amongst the
"entrants" and "leavers." During 1931 the percentage of children
with defects found at the routine medical inspections throughout
the country was 20.0.
Among the 2,588 children specially examined there were
found 1,394 defects requiring treatment and 317 requiring to be
kept under observation.
(a) Uncleanliness. Eight or 0.46% of the children examined
at the routine medical inspection were found to be unclean and
excluded from school. In addition one was found to require
further observation in school on account of this condition, and
was kept under supervision.
During the year 1931, fourteen children or 0.7% of those
examined at the routine medical inspection required to be
excluded from school on account of uncleanliness.
The School Nurse-Health Visitors continued to carry out
the systematic inspection of all the scholars in their schools three
times a year, i.e., after the Christmas, Easter, and Mid-Summer
holidays. This inspection reveals not only unclean children, but
also children suffering from defective vision, minor ailments,
anaemia, malnutrition, etc. These latter children are referred
either to their own doctors or to the Health Centre where they
are seen by one of the School Medical Staff.
The number of examinations of children carried out in the
schools by the School Nurses amounted to 11.886. This means
that nearly every child was inspected for uncleanliness three
times during the year. On an average, the nurses paid seven
visits to each school.
A much higher standard of cleanliness has been insisted
upon during the last few years and there is no doubt a very considerable
improvement has been effected.
82