The South African Optometric Association (SAOU) has partnered the national department of education to address poor eyesight experienced by large numbers of learners across the country.
Called Sight-4 School Eye Care in Education, the programme will be piloted in both rural and metropole areas and is set to be launched towards the end of the year.
SAOU’s president, Deidre de Jongh, said the number of learners with impaired vision is worrying and needs urgent intervention. “As many as 15% to 18% of all children have visual problems and need a visual device to give them clear, comfortable and functional vision,” she said.
It is estimated that one in four children of school-going age and one in 20 pre-primary children suffer from visual problems that can affect their performance. Some of the problems include blurred and distorted images. These children have a poor concentration span because their eye muscles are strained. Learners who have eye problems perform poorly at school not because they are academically incapable but because they simply cannot see properly.
“Input in learning is conveyed through the tactile, auditory but primarily the visual system to be assimilated into meaningful information to be stored for future use,” De Jongh said.
The idea for the national eye care programme is based on the successes of a similar one run jointly by SAOU and the Western Cape department of health, in which school nurses and community health workers were deployed into schools to screen learners for poor vision, particularly those “in their first year of entering formal education”.
De Jongh said during the first 18 months of the programme in the Western Cape 20 007 people’s eyes were screened; 14 289 refractions (an eye exam that measures a person’s ability to see an object at a specific distance) were performed and 12 259 pairs of spectacles were issued to patients of all ages.
Education Minister Naledi Pandor welcomed the initiative and pledged her department’s support. Addressing the Vision2008 congress, hosted by SAOU in Johannesburg last year, Pandor highlighted the seriousness of the problem. She said poor eyesight, “could have been a contributing factor to the drop-out rate, poor academic performance and increase in special education needs”.
In the 2007-2008 financial years, health screening, including eye tests, had been conducted in four provinces: Free State, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and North West.
“Screening learners for visual problems is a solution, because it provides opportunity for appropriate assessment and possible intervention,” said Pandor.