UP to 15 per cent of children in some Fiji schools need prescription glasses, new screening data has revealed, prompting a renewed push for early vision checks in classrooms.
Founder of the US-based Anekant Community Centre Dr Nitin Shah said his team has screened 3666 children in five days across schools in Nadi, Sigatoka and Suva.
The screenings are part of the team’s humanitarian vision mission, which returned to Fiji after screening 25,370 children and adults last year.
“I would say 70 to 80 per cent of the schools, we have found that children’s eyes are very good, which is better compared to some of the other countries that we have been to,” he said.
“However, we did find 20 per cent plus schools where the eyes are comparable to any other country.”
In schools with good eye health, only 3 to 5 per cent of children needed glasses. In others, the figure was between 10 and 15 per cent.
Mr Shah said their focus was on screening young children.
“We are heavily focused on vision screening in children. Our goal is to screen both adults and children.”
He said 14,000 to 15,000 ready-made glasses had been brought from India for simple prescriptions. Dr Shah said for complex cases, prescriptions were taken, glasses were made and then shipped to Fiji for distribution through the Prema Foundation and Sanjeevani Heart Hospital.
He added detecting vision problems in children early was critical to preventing learning difficulties.
“Early detection is critical to prevent learning difficulties. Undetected vision problems can affect a child’s ability to see clearly, participate in class and reach their full potential.”
