View report page

90
to sprinkle them with a weak disinfectant solution. This
method is fairly satisfactory, although if expense did not prohibit
it, a better plan would be to wash the floors every week,
instead of the quite inadequate three times a year, and dispense
with the daily sprinkling with disinfectants.
All dusting is ordered to be done with a cloth made damp
with paraffin.
Cloakrooms.—The amount of space between the pegs is in
all cases the minimum allowed by the Regulations of the Board
of Education. This is barely adequate, the hats and coats are
in such close contact that the free circulation of air between
them, which is so necessary, especially when the clothes are
wet, is not obtained.
The improvements required in cloakrooms are more space
between the pegs, hot water pipes to be carried round the rooms
in order to dry the clothes, and constant ventilation in the form
of a grating, which cannot be closed, should be provided in
addition to the windows. The latter are with few exceptions
nearly always closed and the cloak-rooms consequently often
have an objectionable odour.
Hand Basins.—These are placed at the ends of the cloak
rooms and practically all the schools are well supplied. In
fact in some schools the number is in excess of the requirements
of the children and could well be reduced.
Water Supply.—All the schools are supplied by the Metropolitan
Water Board. Drinking water is provided both in the
main halls of the schools and also in the playgrounds, in some
cases from a cistern, in others from the main. The latter
arrangement is the better and should always be provided.
Cisterns are liable to pollution from being uncovered, and in
some cases the situation of them being inaccessible for cleaning.
Sanitary Conveniences.—All schools are provided with
trough closets, automatically flushed. These are objectionable