A survey of the educational system of the Philippine islands by the Board of educational survey, created under acts 3162 and 3196 of the Philippine Legislature.

456 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF THE PHILIPPINES

tion. The pupil's health record used by the Red Cross nurses is not
so simple as the card used by the Health Service. This is because the
Red Cross, by going into the homes of the children and giving aid
to parents and younger children as well as school children, does follow-up
work, the really vital part of health supervision. A committee met
sometime ago with a view to formulate an individual health card for
children which could be used both by the Red Cross and by the Health
Service. It was very difficult to formulate a card that would be satisfactory to the Health Service, the Red Cross, and the Bureau of
Education. Two cards were finally agreed upon, one for the elementary
and one for the secondary-school children. A child on completing the
high-school course would, if his cards were properly filled out, have
a health record from his admission into the elementary school until his
graduation from the secondary school. Nothing has been done since the
meeting of the committee and a copy of the draft is not available.
Municipal health officers and district health officers are under no
obligation whatever to make report to the division superintendent, but
the division superintendent, through his supervising teachers, secures from
them certain data. The district health officer makes a report on Philippine Health Service Form 15 to the Director of Health.
EFFECTIVENESS OF THE HEALTH SUPERVISION.-Effectiveness of
health examinations is to be judged by the number of children examined,
the character of the examination, and the percentage of defects treated.
Philippine Health Service.-The officers of the Philippine Health
Service are aware of the fact that school children are not receiving adequate care. After commenting upon the "valuable services" given by
the Red Cross, the 1923 Annual Report (page 113) contains the
following:
In spite of such a valuable cooperation, not all the school children were given
proper and necessary attention as regards their physical state. Neither the school
building nor the pupils were all inspected and examined by the presidents of sanitary
divisions. This was due to the lack of funds and personnel assigned for this purpose.
Presidents of sanitary divisions were shouldering the task in addition to their other duties
and their privilege in private practice.1
The Annual Report (1923) of the Philippine Health Service, pp.
114-115, gives the children inspected by provinces, defects found, and
the treatments. The summary of the data gives 509,725 pupils inspected, 149,865 of whom were found to be suffering from some one of
seven diseases listed; reports 12,366 pupils as having been excluded
from school, and 61,540 as having been treated, either in dispensaries
or at their homes.

The italics are the Commission's.