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were in certified special schools, 23 were in public elementary
schools, 2 were in other institutions and 10 were not at school.
Children with heart disease. This classification is confined
to children in whose case the medical officer would be prepared
to certify, under section 55 of the Education Act, 1921, that they
are incapable by reason of such physical defect of receiving proper
benefit from the instruction in the ordinary public elementary
schools.
In the year 1937 the number of children who were suffering
from such defects and were under the supervision of the
Authority was 98, of these 31 were at certified special schools, 49
were at public elementary schools, 17 were at home/and one child
was in an institution of another type.
Children suffering from multiple defects. This classification
includes children suffering from any combination of the
following types of defect: blindness (excluding partially sighted
children); deafness (excluding partially deaf children); mental
defect (feeble-minded); severe epilepsy; active tuberculosis;
crippling (as defined above); and heart disease.
In the year 1937 three such children were known to the
Authority. Particulars of these three cases are given in Table
III of Appendix
(g) Incidence of exceptional children. The incidence
of children showing these defects in the years 1920—1937
inclusive is set out in Table XXIV. In this table the number of
mentally defective children includes those notified to the Local
Authority for appropriate action. The total number of defects
includes children who showed multiple defects. The number of
children classified as having multiple defects is not clearly stated
before 1931, but in any case the numbers are always small.
It will be seen from this table that the incidence of deaf
children and physically defective children was very high in the
years 1920—1922 inclusive. This fact is hardly in accord with
the findings in other parts of the country and it would seem that
some external factor must have been responsible. Consideration
has, of course, been given to the possibility that the high incidence
may have been due to the practice of the medical officers
at the time, but this theory does not entirely explain the facts.
The point is interesting, and I intend to examine it further at a
later date.
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