Section 185A. The department of public health, after consultation with the department of education, shall prescribe and furnish to school committees suitable rules of instruction, test cards, blanks, record books and other useful appliances for accomplishing the purposes of sections fifty-three to fifty-seven, inclusive, of chapter seventy-one and may furnish said material to such boards of health as may require it in the performance of their duties. The department may provide for pupils in the teachers colleges instruction and practice in the best methods of testing the sight and hearing of children.