MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS.
[To THE EDITOR 07 TEM -srsorsrov• Sra,—May I call the attention of your readers to the subject of medical inspection of schools,--a subject likely to come prominently into notice when Hr. McKenna introduces his Education (Administrative Provisions) Bill for its second reading in the House of Commons, and more prominently two months hence, when, as he himself puts it, a great Inter- national Congress will meet in London? This Congress alone is sufficient to testify to the national and educational import- ance of the subject, though this has been kept in the back- ground for many months by the pressure of public business. The State recognised its responsibilities in the matter when the House of Commons a year ago unanimously agreed to make medical inspection obligatory. Since then nothing has been done, ostensibly because the Education Bill came to grief, really because the Board of Education refuses to recognise its obliga- tions. Eleven months ago Mr. Birn311 said :—" The Board of Education was willing to receive insifiration in the direction of strengthening its medical staff at headquarters, not for the purpose of carrying out the inspection of schools—for that, of course, must be done by local doctors to be appointed by the local education authority—but of seeing that the local authorities are discharging the duties which they have power to discharge, and also to keep in touch with what was going on in Continental towns, from which, he admitted, they had much to learn." The Board has had inspiration enough from many quarters. Mr. Birrell received a deputation last November ; a Conference took place in April, and submitted
• These voluntary agencies gethold of the best of the boys, but thee! woMof are not enrolled. The same thing happens later,—Volunteers are the patriotic young fellows, whereas the indifferent or Lary take no part in the preparation for the defence of their country.
resolutions to Mr. McKenna ; public meetings have been held ; and, finally, a deputation waited on Mr. McKenna last week urging the necessity for a medical department at the Board of Education. Mr. McKenna asks for time. In answer to a question in the House of Commons, he said that the staff of the Board may be increased with the consent of the Treasury without legislation ; yet nothing is done, no policy is suggested. From time to time local authorities appoint medical officers to their schools, but there is no competent authority to guide them, though the need for advice and suggestions is obvious to all who realise the scope of school hygiene and the shortcomings of the local authori- ties. Why is Mr. McKenna so slow to take action ? Not on account of increased expenditure. It is scarcely understood what small expenditure is likely to be incurred by the introduction of medical inspection throughout the country. Locally, according to the Report of the Inter-Depart- mental Committee, it need not involve more than a rate of a tenth of a penny. Any idea of evading responsibility by trans- ferring the central administration of medical inspection from the Board of Education to the Local Government Board is palpably ridiculous. It is only necessary to consider for a moment the multifarious duties of a school doctor to satisfy oneself that the Local Government Board is not competent to discharge responsibility as a central advisory and supervisory Board upon such educational matters. Finally, if the organisation of medical inspection of schools is to be adequate and satisfactory, a medical department should be established at the Board of Education, and if necessary this should be enforced by legislation. It is high time the regime, whether it be a regime of masterful inactivity or of diplomatic profundity, at the Board of Education came to an [We agree with our correspondent that there is a real need for medical inspection in schools, and we sincerely trust that he may be mistaken in supposing that the Department is opposing such inspection. Medical inspection is on a perfectly different footing from free meals for school-children, and if properly applied should have no pauperising effect.—En. Spectator.]
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