Turn teachers into frontliners in identifying kids with vision issues

An eye specialist believes the number of Year 1 pupils in Malaysia with vision problems is certainly more than 239, revealed by Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad on Jan 16.

Dr M. Narendran, a consultant ophthalmologist and vitreoretinal surgeon at the Bukit Tinggi Medical Centre in Klang, Selangor, noted that the strength of glasses prescribed for children had generally increased. He observed this trend approximately 15 years ago when he was actively involved in the screening the eyes of school students in Klang.

“The rise in the number of children needing glasses, and the power of their glasses, is not surprising, especially with a huge number of them being glued to screens, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Dr Narendran.

“I am sure there are many more children, including Year 1 pupils, requiring glasses than the figure quoted by the health minister. This was already the case when I was volunteering to check the vision of schoolchildren in Klang more than a decade ago.”

Dr Narendran, who is also a columnist with Twentytwo13, wrote in January last year about the ‘Gift of Sight’ – a collaborative project between Bukit Tinggi Medical Centre and the Rotary Club Klang Central, where he and his team performed free cataract surgeries for eligible individuals in the B40 group.

In his article, he wrote that of the 46 children screened at a community centre in Bukit Rotan, Kuala Selangor, 13 of them needed spectacles.

“If you were to extrapolate this number with the community at large, you will realise the number of people who may need help,” he wrote then.

Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad had said earlier that the number of Year 1 pupils with vision problems had risen from 215 in 2022, to 239 in 2023. To tackle this issue, the Health Ministry, in collaboration with the Education Ministry, launched a public-private partnership with Optimax Eye Specialist Centre Sdn Bhd, to address vision impairment in schoolchildren.

Dr Narendran said the initiative was good but was quick to add that it would only work if it was properly implemented.

“Instead, it’s best to empower the teachers to identify vision problems among our children. I know the teachers will think of it as an extra burden, but they will be able to correct the vision of many of them in the long run.

“We can’t just rely on the annual eye screening by the Health Ministry. There are many optometry schools and colleges in the country with which the Education Ministry can work closely, by teaching our teachers how to identify children with eyesight issues.”

“Teachers often spend more time with the children than their parents. I’ve had parents come up to me, telling me that their child’s teachers had encouraged them to seek professional help as the child was having problems looking at the board or books.”

He added that some parents were in denial when dealing with their child’s vision problems.

“I attended to a 6-year-old recently who complained of blurred vision. When I asked him how long he had been facing this issue, he replied that it had been some time and that he had informed his mother about it. When I asked his mother why she hadn’t sought help for her son earlier, the mother said that she thought the child was ‘simply making things up’ so that he could “wear glasses, just like his cousins”.

“Some vision issues can be corrected if addressed early on,” he added.