Good sight, Good grades is an awareness program centered on the early detection of visual problems that affects a child's learning ability in school. The most common of these problems is short-sightedness. Most children with visual problems have difficulty in reading and writing from the board which makes them lose focus quickly in class and being able to concentrate is fundamental to a child's performance in school.
It is estimated that nearly 25% of preschool-age children have vision problems and only about one-third of children have had an eye examination or vision screening before entering school. According to the American Optometric Association (A.O.A), infants should have their first comprehensive eye examination at 6months of age, afterwards, children should have an additional eye examination at age 3 and age 5 or 6. So this project will involve my team and I going to primary and secondary schools around Ugbowo, Benin city to enlighten teachers and students on the importance of routine eye check-ups in school children. But being aware of the students' difficulties is not a conclusive solution to their problem, so my team and I will discuss with the school authorities to make it mandatory that before the beginning of each session, each student should get an eye examination to certify them fit for the session. The name, contact, and address of a nearby eye clinic will be provided to the school authority so they can get easy assess to a clinic for the eye examination.
Also, visual acuity charts will be given to the school Principal to place at the standard distance where school children can stand and read the letters to know how well they can see. From research done on secondary school children in Lafia, Nassarawa state, it was concluded that poor visual acuity negatively affects academic performance. Therefore, this will serve as a basic tool in detecting any difficulty a child may be experiencing while in school. We will also train school teachers on how to carry out visual acuity testing.