Abstract:

Introduction: Vision helps to perceive details of surroundings and regarded as the most important tool for learning for schoolchildren. World Health Organization (WHO) has prioritized vision screening in schools to decrease the burden of visual impairment (VI) in children. Any change in vision can be identified by schoolteachers when a child has difficulty in seeing the black board and reading books.

Aim: This study is aimed to see if visual screening training to schoolteachers can effectively be used to detect VI in children.

Material & Methods: Visual screening of 1134 eyes of 567 students was done by both the investigator and school teachers and results were formulated and compared. There was no difference in result in 66.31 % eyes. Investigator recorded better visual acuity (VA)+ with a 1-line difference in 14.55% eyes and two lines difference 3.35% eyes. Whereas, teachers recorded one-line better VA in 12.79% eyes and two lines better VA in 3% eyes.

Result: Out of 578 students from the three different schools of Allahabad district, from class 3 to 6, majority (267) belonged to school 3, whereas school 1 had the least (142) number of students.

Conclusion: The present study has identified the role of teachers as visual screeners in schools. The procedure is cost effective and require only visual screening training to the schoolteachers, so they can be used effectively for early detection of reduced vision in schoolchildren.

Keywords: Visual screening, health screening, visual impairment, schoolteachers, schoolchildren.

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