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Choice of employment
The percentage of school leavers advised against particular forms of employment was
13.0 per cent, of those inspected, only 0.2 per cent, less than that for 1963. For boys the
figure fell slightly from 15.2 per cent, in 1963 to 15.1 per cent, and for girls it fell from 11.3
per cent, to 10.7 per cent. As in recent years, work involving normally acute vision headed
the list of contra.indications followed by colour vision (boys only) and heavy manual
work:
Contra.indications Boys Girls
Occupations involving:
Heavy manual work 248 128
Sedentary work 12 6
Indoor work 3 —
Exposure to bad weather 108 102
Wide changes of temperature 61 144
Work in damp atmosphere 77 73
Work in dusty atmosphere 151 103
Much stooping 46 36
Work near moving machinery or moving vehicles 116 80
Prolonged standing, much walking or quick movement from
place to place, work at heights 248 175
Normally acute vision 1,246 960
Normal colour vision 334 2
Normal use of hands 32 12
Work requiring freedom from damp hands and skin defects 22 27
Handling or preparation of food 51 24
Normal hearing 71 39
Any other work which would be unsuitable 28 10
Unfit for any employment — 1
note: An individual may be noted for two or more contra-indications.
Infectious diseases in schools
When a pupil was absent from school and the cause either known or suspected to be due
to infectious disease, the head of the school notified the divisional medical officer and the
borough medical officer of health.
These notifications are uncorrected for diagnosis but form the best available index of
the trend of infectious disease in the school community; they are the only figures available
in respect of diseases which are not statutorily notifiable.
When the number of cases of infectious disease reported from a particular school
indicates the possibility of an outbreak, special visits are made by a school nurse/health
visitor and, if necessary, by a school doctor, in order to investigate the situation and take
whatever control action is necessarv.