SCHOOL MEDICAL INSPECTION.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1170, 4 July 1911, Page 6

SCHOOL MEDICAL INSPECTION.

THE IDEA APPRAISED. BUT MOKE "WORK FOR• TEACHERS. (By Teleeraoh—Prr?s Association.! . Christchurch, July 2. In the course of an interview, Mr. C. H. Opie, chairman of the North Canterbury Education Board, commented on the scheme for- the' medical inspection of school children, which had been proposed at the Health Conference by the Inspec-tor-General of Hospitals. Mr. Opie said'that the. North Canterbury Education Board had been asking fcr some time for medical inspection in the schools, and'had'been getting rather impatient that nothing in that direction had been done, up to the present time. Medical inspection had appeared to be a very expensive matter, but that difficulty would be met "if Dr. Valiutine's scheme were carried out by the hospital boards paying one-half ;of the. sum required (.£1:1,500) and the other half by the Government; in the way of a subsidy. The experiment had been tri<?d at the Gloucester Street School two years previously, but it had been found that so much time was taken up-in examining the children that it had given rather a nct-b.'ick to the proposition. • ■ He was sure that the present scheme could I>3 carried out at a small cost, and one of the' factors that would tend to lower the cost would lie that the teachers would be required to do a certain •imouut of the medical examining:. 'With reference to file suggested appointment.of school nurses, he did not think that much could lz> done in that direction for some time, 1/nt it would doubtless be the outcome e( (ho scheme later. The fact that the cost was so small, in ' proportion to the advantages to be gained, should make those who had'opposed the proposal in the (last now give way, The proposal to charge a f.ee for each child examined was not unreasonable, "and he had'no doubt that a reasonable fee would be fixed. : • . •.

. In'answer to a question from tho reporter as to the extra clerical work placed on the teachers, Mr. Opie said that there was no doubt ' whatever that teachers were required to keep too many records at present. A lot of the 'records', now kept could be-done; away and' the medical records taken in 'their nlaco. He and recently been instrnmcntarin getting a lot of the clerical work of the teachers lessened. The - teachers had been very' generously treated'bv the Government i'n recent years, Mr. Opie concluded, and ho had no doubt that they would be only too pleased to assist iii anv work which was for the good of the children,