M 56
218. Treatment of Government school children is undertaken at three general and two special clinics which deal with visual defects.
Attendances were as follows:-
Ellis Kadoorie School Clinic 948 Violet Peel Health Centre 602 Yaumati School Clinic 1,123 Special Clinics for eyes 370 Total:- 3,043219. School nurses in addition to assisting at the clinics paid 127 visits to the homes of pupils.
220. Two members of the medical staff are engaged at Government Hospitals on two forenoons and three afternoons in the week for the examination and treatment of eye defects. A third member on two afternoons attends the ear, nose and throat clinic to deal with cases which are sent from the local school clinics. The number of attendances at the eye clinic was 370; at the ear, nose and throat clinic 794.
221. The teaching of hygiene in private vernacular schools leaves much to be desired. Most of the teachers have grown up in insanitary surroundings and having received no training in the subject regard it as one of little importance. The few who are sympathetic are handicapped by the fact that the school premises do not demonstrate the principles of hygiene. Where pupils are crowded together in badly lighted and badly ventilated rooms, where the only latrine accommodation is a commode in a small kitchen, and where the kitchen drain is used as a urinal by both teachers and pupils, the atmosphere can hardly be considered as favourable for the teaching of hygiene.