October 13, 2016
Poor sight affecting education chances
It's World Sight Day, and that's brought a warning children in poverty are missing out on basic eye care.
Ponsonby optometrist Renata Watene says reseach conducted by an international charity shows almost a third of low decile students have an undiagnosed vision issue which may affect their learning.
With one in three Maori and Pasifika children and one in seven Pakeha children living in poverty, more needs to be done to ensure poor sight does not become a barrier to education.
A number of optometrists are working with the Essilor Vision Foundation to screen children at lower decile schools.
The foundation provides glasses and for those who need it, while those in need of surgery are referred to the public health system.
Ms Watene says the work feeds in to a Massey university research project to determine how correcting vision issues affects the education potential of students.
Essilor has created a givealittle page < https://givealittle.co.nz/org/evf > to fund more screening of low decile kids, and it's also encouraging others to book an eye examination with participating optometrists.
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