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9
MEDICAL INSPECTION.
Routine.—The routine medical inspection of school children is
confined to the following three groups, and no exception was made during
the year 1937 :—
(i) The entrants, or those not previously examined since their
admission to school.
(ii) The intermediates, or those who have attained the age of
8 years.
(iii) The leavers, or those who are 12 years of age and have not
been examined since reaching that age.
Parents were in all cases notified of the proposed inspection and
invited to be present. The response to these invitations has been good,
particularly in the case of infant departments, in which it has not been
unusual to have at least 90 per cent. of parents. The examination of
children, with the exception of Culvert, Crowland Road and Devonshire
Hill Schools (where accommodation is set apart for this purpose), is
undertaken in classrooms, teachers' rooms and school halls, under conditions
which are mostly unfavourable to the privacy and silence required
for the performance of medical examinations. At several schools there
is no accommodation available for medical inspection and in such cases
the children and their parents attend at the school clinic premises. The
inspecting medical officer is accompanied by a school nurse who weighs
and measures the children, carries out cleanliness examinations and tests
distant vision. All defects found are notified to the parents who at the
same time are advised as to treatment, and all children found to have
defects are re-examined during the course of the year. Table II A
(Appendix) shows the number of defects found during the year and number
requiring treatment.
Special.—Besides the routine age-groups, 8,511 special cases were
examined, including all boys and girls who were about to leave school
and whose final routine examination disclosed defects rendering them
unsuitable for certain types of work. A special card was completed for
each case and forwarded to the Juvenile Employment Officer in accordance
with the suggestion contained in the Board of Education Memorandum