EDUCATIONAL NEEDS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26630, 28 November 1947, Page 6

EDUCATIONAL NEEDS

CHILD SUFFERERS FROM TUBERCULOSIS

SPECIAL PROVISION URGED P.A. WELLINGTON, Nov. 27.

The need of a central sanatorium where child sufferers from tuberculosis could receive education as well as treatment was mentioned by Dr Gilbert Mac Lean, specialist in tuberculosis ht the Wellington Hospital, at a meeting of the Executive Council of the New Zealand Federation of Tuberculosis Associations. It was stated during the proceedings that, though instruction is given to children in sanatoriums such as Pukeroa (Waipukurau) and Cashmere (Christchurch), it is rare for the few young inmates of chest wards in ordinary hospitals to have special provision made for tuition. The subject of tuition in chest wards was introduced by a letter from the Taranaki Tuberculosis Association following which’ Dr R. F. Wilson (New Plymouth) reported on the attitude of certain Taranaki Educational authorities as narrow-minded, pig-headed, and obstructionist. Dr Wilson said he knew of a boy seven years of age who had received no education on account of bis complaint at the New Plymouth Hospital. There were, on the average, from seven to eight children in the chest ward who were well enough to have several hours’ tuition each day, but the school teachers would not cooperate in providing tuition. Mr C. Robertson, representing the Education Department, said that when the Wanganui Hospital Board asked for the establishment of such a class a teacher for the children was found. The matter of infection came up in connection with the correspondence school, and a proposal for the sterilisation of papers was considered. The position in New Plymouth, continued Mr Robertson, was that the teachers who had been instructing in the chest block some years ago had been supplied with gowns and masks. One morning they found the gowns and masks gone, and it became a case of “ no masks, no teaching.”

Dr Mac Lean said the educational needs of tubercular children requiring hospital treatment was an important matter requiring a long-term view, and was wrapped up with the establishment of a central institution for such patients. The subject should be kept in mind when considering the establishment of’a new sanatorium at Otaki.