HH62/2/SUTHER/49

Transcription

[Page] 48

or so fix them that they can direct the entering air into body of room
without producing draught.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
From the notes of this report it will be gathered in what sanitary
condition are our schools in the county, and what are their
deficiencies. Some parishes have School Boards which evidently
have not considered the necessity of providing their schools with
drinkable water. Others are negligent in the matter of seeing to
the proper and periodical cleaning of the offices, &c. I would respect-
fully recommend that all Boards should provide some person to do all
cleansing work in or about a school, who would be paid directly by
them, and not through the teacher. The common arrangement of
imposing this distasteful and menial duty on the teacher is most
objectionable. In some cases no money at all is given by the Board
for the purpose, and in other instances the sum given is included in
that for dusting and fire lighting, and is utterly inadequate for the
proper performance of the combined duties.
The ventilation of a large number of schools is quite defective,
and the bad air is certainly conducive to disease and low health.
How to improve this fault, as well as the better warming of fresh air
entering, is a question which each Board must consider, according to
the necessities of each school by itself. The flap ventilators so often
found in use are merely nominal in effect, for they are more
frequently shut or broken than open and effective. A larger use
should be made of perforated zinc in a framework, instead of these
impervious wooden flaps. No draught would be felt by children
from this, as the diffusion of air would be able to go on imperceptibly
and at a sufficient distance from their heads. Where possible, inlets
for fresh air should be made near fireplaces or stoves, and the air in
passing them would be warmed and directed to high levels to purify
and drive out foul air. At all events, some means better than the
present must be found and applied for better ventilation and
warming.
Furniture of a size proportionate to that of the children should
be more largely introduced, and so placed in schools that the light
would enter at the left side of the pupil.
Greater attention is required for providing better cloak-rooms or
lobbies, especially for use during wet weather, so that those who have
been soaked with rain should be able to get dried, or if not should be
sent home. Disease has frequently arisen from the want of this
reasonable attention.
Teachers would be conferring valuable benefits on children and
their parents if they were uniformly to prevent their pupils from
cleaning their slates with saliva or moist breath, as throat and other
diseases may readily and unconsciously be spread in this way from

[Page] 49

an affected child to others; and School Boards should cause all slates,
furniture, and exposed woodwork to get a thorough cleaning at stated
regular intervals. In short, schools should be as carefully looked
after by those responsible as the best private houses, otherwise they
are and can be powerful factors in causing or disseminating disease.
In conclusion, I may refer to the question of feeding of children
who, at school, may be long distances from their homes. There are
many such in our county; and Boards should consider the propriety
and necessity of so making arrangements that a simple meal could be
produced or warmed up and eaten in their school premises. More
sustained attention would be given by scholars, better grants be
earned for work done with sprightliness and precision, and certainly
our children would be fortified against diseases which arise when the
constitution is out of tone from bad air and want of food. Moreover,
the necessary operations of cooking would be of inestimable value in
training children to choose and cook their required food in the best
possible way. In any case, children should not, in stormy weather,
be forced to remain outside the school building during the lunch time.
At present this is not an uncommon practice, which the teachers
justify themselves in enforcing because of the necessity for ventilation
of buildings. If this must be so, there may be a good case for School
Boards being asked to consider the advisability of erecting covered
parts of the playground for the protection and comfort of the children
while eating their lunch in inclement weather.

D. G. S.