Mr. SANDEMAN ALLENasked the President of the Board of Education the total number of children in England and Wales, between the ages of five and 16, who are both blind and deaf; and what special provisions exist for the distinctive educational training of such children necessary to save them from the complete physical and mental inefficiency which, without such training in early life, is likely to ensue?
§ Lord E. PERCYThe latest available returns of local authorities, which relate to the 31st March, 1927, show 26 children, classed as mentally normal between the ages of five and 16 who are blind and deaf. There is a certified special school at Penn in Buckinghamshire with accommodation for 79 children who are deaf and also suffer from some other defect, including blindness, and I understand that the residential special school for deaf children at Birmingham is prepared to admit children who are also blind provided that there is a sufficient number of these children to form a small class.