THE HEALTH OF THE CHILD
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sin,—In your paragraph, The Health of the Child, under the "News of the Week" in your last issue; you 'draw attention to the new circular just issued by the Board of Education on the subject of meals and milk for school children. This circular is apparently intended to make clear a previous circular of the Board on the same subject. The earlier circular aroused considerable opposition because it laid down that no children were to receive free meals or free milk, however poor their parents might be, unless the School Medical Officer was able to certify that the children were actually suffering from sub- normal nutrition.
One looks in vain in the new circular for any withdrawal of this condition. Children whose parents' income falls below the scale may be placed temporarily on the free list pending a medical examination, but they are not to remain upon it unless at all events slight symptoms are discovered.
It is, of course, very desirable that all children in receipt of free meals or milk should be medically examined from time to tune to see whether they are making proper progresS or whether additional assistance is required. But this is very different from laying it down, as the circular does, that, unless a particu- lar type of medical report is obtained, no child, however great its poverty, can receive at school the nourishment that its parents are unable to provide for it at home.—Yours, &c.,
Previous page
