Lagos Launches Eye Health Program In Secondary Schools

The Lagos State Government has launched the Secondary School Eye Health Programme; the first of its kind in Nigeria.

This is in continuation of its effort to reduce visual impairment and blinding eye conditions amongst students, particularly pupils of Secondary schools in Lagos,

Speaking at the launch of the program at Oregun Junior High School, Ikeja, the State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi noted that the Secondary school eye health program is one of the strategies of the State Government through its Blindness Prevention Program to reduce the burden of childhood blindness in Lagos State.

He explained that the Secondary School Eye Health Program has four main components including; training of teachers on vision screening in all the state secondary schools starting with the junior secondary schools; installation of vision screening board in all the state secondary schools; equipping of all secondary schools with vision screening kits and management and referrals of students with eye conditions by the Blindness Preventive Team.

He said: “Vision impairment affects people of all ages and children are not left out. The leading causes of vision impairment and blindness are uncorrected refractive errors and cataracts. Visual impairment from uncorrected refractive error has immediate and long-term consequences. It can hamper performance, reduce productivity and generally impair quality of life.

Abayomi enjoined teachers to also use the opportunity offered by the secondary eye health program to examine their eyes stressing that the program is for students, teachers and school staff alike.

The Commissioner who noted that that WAEC performance of schools in Lagos has increased from 39 percent to 80 percent, attributed the excellent performance to the hard work and dedication of teachers adding the feat is a testimonial of the successes of various education policies being implemented in the State. “I can also assure you that this secondary school eye health program will further enhance the performance of our students”, Abayomi concluded.

Speaking in the same vein, the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr. Olusegun Ogboye explained that the School Eye Health Program was launched in the year 2006, and held in primary schools on IBILE basis to carry out eye screening for the pupils.

He added that the scope of the program was expanded in 2012 to include training of teachers and installation of vision screening board in all the state primary schools.

The Permanent Secretary noted that it was in furtherance of the bid to address the burden of visual impairment and ensure better blindness prevention program coverage, that secondary school eye health program was launched.

“The Secondary School Eye Health Program started with the training of teachers in the Junior Secondary schools; these training commenced last week and will be ending on the 11th February 2022. So far, 306 teachers have been trained and 175 vision corridors have been installed. It is our expectation that after the training all the teachers will be able to carry out the vision screening assessment”, he stated.

He noted that beyond the School Eye health program, the Lagos State School Health program also addresses health issues that could militate against better learning experience including componets such as the Ear Nose and Throat (ENT), Dental Care, Personal and Environmental Hygiene and Mental Health Care.

Earlier in his remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Education, Mr. Abayomi Abolaji laud the collaboration between the Lagos State Ministries of Health and Education which resulted in the birthing of the expanded School Eye Health Program – the Secondary School Eye Health Program.

He added that the program will help alleviate the sufferings of students with visual impairments and ultimately improve the academic performance of secondary school pupils in the State.

The high point of the event was the presentation of eye glasses to students, vision screening kits to trained secondary schools teachers and unveiling of the vison corridor at the Oregun Junior High school.