“School Student’s Sight” project: experts to check students’ eyesight and provide recommendations on how to preserve it in schools of Lviv oblast

Zir shkoliara (School Student’s Sight) project will be launched in Lviv region: in certain schools, experts will check students’ visual acuity and help eliminate the factors that affect its deterioration. Natalia Ivanchenko, Head of the Lviv Oblast Disease Control and Prevention Center of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, Epidemiology and Vaccinal Prevention Expert of the Healthcare Department of Lviv Oblast Military Administration spoke about this during a briefing at Media Center Ukraine. According to her, specialist’s visits to schools are to take place once every three months.

“A team of ophthalmologist specialists will come to examine the children and check their eyesight. If they see that a child has the slightest signs of visual impairment, recommendations will be made on what to do in the future to eliminate these problems as soon as possible, or to stop the effect of some negative factors. Other specialists will come and measure the lighting levels in classrooms. If they see that, for example, the blinds are darkened somewhere and this prevents light from entering (the room), or perhaps the desks are not at the correct distances, they will help to correct this in the right way,” — Natalia Ivanchenko explained.

Specialists will also help to correctly place students at desks in accordance with the identified eye pathologies. Teachers, parents and children will also be taught how to do eye exercises to reduce eye strain. 

“The issue of schoolchildren’s eyesight is very important, it is a serious problem considering that children use gadgets almost from preschool age. And the goal of this project is to investigate how the schoolchildren’s eyesight will change throughout the academic year in the schools we have chosen. Hopefully it will improve after we take appropriate measures. At the end of the year, we will sum up the results and be able to demonstrate the results of this project to all of you, and appropriate decisions will be made,” — Oleh Paska, Director of the Education and Science Department of Lviv Oblast Military Administration said.

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