Teacher-Coaches

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31109, 12 July 1966, Page 16

Teacher-Coaches

Sir, —The reply to my letter confirmed my suspicions. If my husband died while coaching or refereeing school sport I could be left penniless, except for some pittance in the form of a compassionate grant, as there may be no grounds for a claim against the department. The statement that teachers volunteer to take sport (during school hours, mind you) is one of the most ludicrous I have ever read. And this from a responsible departmental official! There are no regular compulsory medical examinations or age limits for teacher-coach-es, so the widow and dependants would have no alternative but to sue those responsible. Mr Hamilton evades departmental responsibility and apparently places the onus on individual headmasters. The wives of several of my husband’s colleagues and I agreed that the widow would

have to sue the headmaster who issued the instructions to the deceased, and claim for the loss of a husband and father.—Yours, etc., TEACHER’S WIFE. July 9, 1966. Sir,—lt is regrettable that Mr Hamilton’s reply to a correspondent contained many contraditions. On the one hand Mr Hamilton states that “coaching and refereeing are usually undertaken voluntarily by teachers,” while on the other hand he states, “if a teacher is under orders to coach or referee games . . .” (this certainly is the most unusual) and “1 cannot envisage pressure being put on a teacher to carry out such duties if he felt that health or age made this hazardous to him.” Mr Hamilton cannot have it both ways. If it is usually voluntary, as Mr Hamilton tells us, why would teachers be excused on grounds of health or age? One would not expect “volunteers” to be excused. My doctor considers that middleaged teacher-coaches run a definite risk of coronaries and that there should be an age limit. The department has an obligation to put this into effect and discontinue a ridiculous practice.—Yours, etc., CONSCRIPT. July 10, 1966.