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Defective vision is one of the most important defects
discovered. At the routine medical inspections, fifty-seven
children with defective vision and eight with squint were found
to require treatment. This makes a total of sixty-five cases
requiring treatment or 3.68% of the children examined. The
figure for the previous year was 3.75%. The actual incidence
of defective vision requiring treatment is, however, higher
than 3.68%. Of the 1,764 children examined as routine cases
five hundred and thirty-three were entrants and in the
majority of these it was impossible to carry out subjective
visual tests on account of their age. In addition, one hundred
and eight children with slighter degrees of defective vision
were found at school. These cases did not require treatment
and were kept under observation.
Of the children examined as special cases at the Health
Centre there were fifty-five with defective vision and six with
squint requiring treatment, and three with defective vision or
squint requiring to be kept under observation. The cases
which are kept under observation and not referred for
immediate treatment are those with minor defects of vision.
These children are re-examined by the medical officer
when the school is next visited. If necessary, they are then
referred to the Refraction Clinic for examination by the
ophthalmic surgeon.
(e) Nose and Throat Defects. At the routine medical
inspections there were twenty-nine cases of enlarged tonsils,
one case of adenoids, sixteen cases of adenoids with enlarged
tonsils, and thirteen cases with other conditions of the nose
and throat requiring treatment. Thus out of 1,764 children
examined in the routine way, fifty-nine or approximately 3.34%
were found to need surgical or other treatment. In addition,
there were sixty-three other children or 3.57% with defects
of the nasopharynx. Most of these were suffering from enlarged
tonsils requiring to be kept under observation. At the
Health Centre eighty children with enlarged tonsils and
twenty-one with enlarged tonsils and adenoids were found at
the special inspections to require surgical treatment.
(f) Ear Diseases and Defective Hearing. At the routine
inspections six children were found to be suffering from
defective hearing, six from otitis media, and five from other
ear disease, all requiring treatment. There were also five
children with defective hearing, and two with otitis media
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