SCHOOL MEDICAL INSPECTORS.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 August 1917, Page 6

SCHOOL MEDICAL INSPECTORS.

INCREASE TO BE MAKE. ' A request to increase the number of school medical inspectors was made to tho Minister for Education in Parliament the other day by the member for Tauniarunui, Mr. Jennings. In a printed relily, placed before the House on Wednesday Mr. Hanan said:—As nvill be seen from the recent public statements made by myself, the national importance of the work of school medical inspectors •lias been a matter to 'which I have given a considerable amount of attention. A report of a very interesting and instructive character will shortly be issued dealing with the work of the medical inspectors and of the principles upon which the medical inspection is based. Proposals are under consideration to increase the number of school medical inspectors and of school nurses, and also to make provision for co-operating with the Plunket nurses for the benefit of school-children in outlying districts. When it is remembered that there is only one school medi-i-a> inspector to each fcrty-fivo thousand school-children, it will be recognised ithai the number of the present staff falls far short of the ideal, ilt is hoped to add to the number as soon as improved conditions make it possible to secure the services of additional school medical inspectors, so that they may be able to cope with tho inspection of the whole of the school children of New Zealand, irrespective of the ■ schools they attend. The Government is fully alive to the ■value of school medical inspection and to the possibilities of its development, recognising that it is necessary to build up from the foundation a healthy and vigorous race, without which all our attempts at education and social progress will be, to a large extent, handicapped.