Child eye health is key to wellbeing and accessing education

To mark World Sight Day, Sightsavers’ eye health policy advisor Fiona Lawless and eye health deputy technical director Sumrana Yasmin explain how school eye health programmes are essential for children to fulfil their potential and build confidence.

“There are changes in the students’ academic performance after they were provided with glasses,” a school principal in Liberia reports in a Sightsavers evaluation.

“There are children who never performed well before and were able to perform better in their lessons after receiving glasses. They are doing good in reading and writing, and their confidence has increased.”

Twelve-year-old Arthur is one student who experienced the struggle to learn with impaired vision. No matter how hard he squinted, he couldn’t clearly see the board at the front of the class. His poor vision also meant he missed out on playing football with his friends, and one day he chipped a tooth after a bad fall.

Arthur’s teacher Mr Thompson had received training through a Sightsavers-supported school health project. He referred Arthur for an eye screening, which found him to have an uncorrected refractive error. A pair of glasses were prescribed and dispensed, which has made a huge difference.

“When I didn’t have glasses, I did not see clearly,” Arthur says. “Things were not well with me. Every time I was taking a test, I was failing most of the questions. Before I could not see the board clearly, but now I can see the board! I want to be good in the future – I want to become an engineer!”

The impact of eye health on education

Child eye health and education are inextricably linked in driving sustainable development and unlocking the potential of every child, leaving no one behind.

Vision is a key theme in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and is a vital contributor to reducing poverty, improving productivity, increasing access to education and work, enhancing participation and improving gender equity and wider equality.

Current estimates suggest there are 23.5 million children with a moderate to severe vision impairment, including nearly 1.5 million children who are blind, with short-sightedness (myopia) projected to increase to more than half of the world’s population by 2050.

This year’s World Sight Day is focusing on child eye health.

We know that 80 per cent of what young children learn is processed through their sight. The Lancet reports that children with vision loss are up to five times less likely to be in formal education in low and middle income countries. Children with a vision impairment must be accessing education, either supported with assistive products such as glasses or, for those students whose vision cannot be improved, with the support they need to attend and engage.

All children, like Arthur, deserve to have the tools they need to gain an education and achieve their dreams.

Authors

Fiona Lawless is Sightsavers’ health policy advisor.

Sumrana Yasmin is Sightsavers’ deputy technical director for eye health. She is based in Pakistan.