Screening sight

Regular, routine checkups at the school level could help prevent blindness and the major problems that come with it for schoolchildren. Experts in Islamabad have said that at least one in every ten schoolchildren in the country suffer vision problems, which can affect their futures. They have pointed out that common problems including eye infections and corneal ulcers could lead to the development of more serious threats to sight if not treated early. It is also established that poor eyesight holds back learning for children, and causes them both intellectual and emotional problems. About 0.9 percent of the population in Pakistan is believed to be blind, most of them from preventable or curable disease. It is also possible that many with visual handicaps are not screened and not included in these statistics.

Routine eye screening is the norm in many countries, including other South Asian nations as well as those in the developed world. We urgently need to introduce such checks to establish the needs of children suffering sight deficiencies and how this can be handled. Teachers as well as parents need to be educated about common eye problems and how to watch out for them. Had such a system been in place earlier, we may have been able to save the sight of a large number who are currently blind or severely visually impaired. Aside from eyesight, other health issues including poor hearing needs to be tested for at schools. Hearing problems are common in Pakistan due to both genetic and environmental factors, and detecting them early in a child’s school life can prevent many future problems. The same is true for dental health and other basic checkups that can be undertaken within classroom settings. Doing so could bring tens of thousands of children into the healthcare network, with many currently remaining completely outside it.

The fact that knowledge about poor eyesight and methods to detect it is limited also means parents do not undertake eye checkups for children, in some cases leading to curable ailments worsening to a point where they impede sight. We need to focus on preventive health and develop tools to check disease, especially among children and young people. Schools are an excellent place to begin. We know that visually impaired children are sometimes deprived of schooling because of their handicap and routine eye checkups could offer them the help they need, in some cases merely by offering them a pair of spectacles or treatment that can cure eye conditions before they develop into longer term problems.