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SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICE
School Population. There was a further increase in the school population during the
year. On 31st December, 1949 there were 27,027 children on the school rolls, as compared
with 26,507 on the corresponding day of 1948.
The increase since 1945 is slightly less than 7,000.
Medical Inspection. A table setting out the work done under this heading will be
found in appendix No.5 on pages 68-70.The volume of work carried out was much the same as in
the year before.
At the beginning of 1947 the Ministry of Education introduced a new form of record
for school medical inspections. The record combined detailed findings of inspection with
full notes on medical history, social and educational circumstances, follow-up card and
recommendations regarding employment, all in one document of convenient size, which can
accompany the child throughout his school career. Among other things, it replaced the
previous nutritional assessment by a wider one covering the child's general condition.
The reason for this is because so many other factors inevitably entered into the
Medical Officers1 judgment that it had long been recognised that the assessment could not
be regarded as a measure of pure nutrition, and in that respect it was misleading. The
new classification of general condition was divided into three categories, as against
the previous four. The percentages allotted to the various categories during the year
of trial were somewhat tentative and have now been modified in the light of experience.