Research
Effectiveness of Training Teachers in Vision Screening of School Children Supported by Foundation for the Prevention of Disability
A training programme was conducted by an ophthalmologist for 7 primary school teachers regarding common eye diseases in childhood and how to use a number chart designed to Snellen’s specifications.
1814 eyes of 907 children were screened by both teacher and optometrist whereas in 1255 (69 %) eyes, there was no difference in the recording of visual acuity of children.
In 499 eyes, a false positive result was recorded, i.e., teacher recorded worse vision than the optometrist. In majority of these cases, (408 eyes) 81.76% the difference was by one line only.
This pilot study has shown us that it is possible to teach vision recording in a short period of time. The authors believe the entire chart should be used for recording rather than just the 6/9 line so that teachers come to know about the severity of the visual loss and can pay particular attention to those with uni-ocular loss and severe visual loss.