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21
As the Urban District of Barnes does not, as yet, enjoy
autonomy in the matter of public elementary schools, the arrangements
for medical inspection are in the hands of the County
authorities, and are well carried out by the executive officer,
Dr. Jones, Assistant County Medical Officer of Health, with whom
we work in the admirable harmony desired by the Board of
Education.
The last memorandum of the Board of Education, on school
closure and the exclusion of scholars, has of course raised some
difficult technical points owing to the state of the law. But, while
the actual systematic inspection is carried out for Barnes and
Mortlake by the special medical examiners appointed by the
Education Committee of the Surrey County Council to work under
Dr. Jones, I continue gladly to carry on the somewhat thankless
task of examining school attendance cases.
Owing to an expression of opinion at the Mortlake Petty
Sessional Court that medical evidence should always be forthcoming
in cases of prosecution for non-attendance owing to dirt,
vermin, &c., and the apparent reluctance of anyone or any
authority to pay fees in respect of such evidence, a position of
some difficulty was at one time reached.
The difficulty was, however, resolved, and the activities
of the excellent School Attendance Officer, Mr. Chambers,
under the direction of his Committee, continue to exert
an increasingly beneficent effect. An arrangement has also been
arrived at between Dr. Jones and myself whereby the technical and
legal difficulties indicated by the memorandum just referred to
in respect of school closure on "educational" grounds, and the
exclusion of particular children, are overcome. Happily, during
the year school closure was only called for in the case of the outbreak
at the Green Schools just alluded to.