Ministry of Education: 14% of primary school students enrolled in myopia

Beijing, October 26 (China News Service) -- China's Ministry of Education held a press conference on October 26 to introduce the prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents. Wang Dengfeng, director of the Department of Physical Education, Health and Art Education of the Ministry of Education, said at the press conference that from 2018 to 2020, the myopia rate of primary school first-grade students is about 14%.

According to Wang Dengfeng, in 2018, the Ministry of Education and other eight departments jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for the Comprehensive Prevention and Control of Myopia in Children and Adolescents". In the past three years, with the joint efforts of all parties, despite the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents has made significant progress.

He said that from 2018, the overall myopia rate of children and adolescents in the country was 53.6%, and by 2019, the overall myopia rate fell to 50.2%, and in 2019, it was 3.4 percentage points lower than in 2018. From 2019 to 2020, due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, by the end of 2020, the overall myopia rate of children and adolescents rose to 52.7%, which was 52.7% up 2.5 percentage points compared with 2019 and 0.9 percentage points lower than in 2018.

"Therefore, we say that the prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents has made obvious progress in the past three years, that is, based on these three years, it has dropped by 0.9 percentage points overall, reaching the goal of 0.5 percentage points per year, which should be said to be basically completed." Wang Dengfeng said.

Wang Dengfeng said that from the recent statistics, from 2018 to 2020, the myopia rate of first-grade primary school students is about 14%, which is basically flat for three years. He stressed that once myopia occurs, it is irreversible, and reducing the rate of myopia is not to treat those children who are already myopic, but to let children who are not nearsighted not have myopia, and at the same time let children who are already nearsighted not further aggravated.

Wang Dengfeng pointed out that for students in the lower grades of primary school, the "double subtraction" document has clearly required that there be no examinations, no homework, and at the same time establish good eye habits. In addition, in order to prevent myopia, it is necessary to effectively reduce the burden of schoolwork, and at the same time encourage and lead children to the sun, effectively enhance the homework in physical education and aesthetic education, and also help children to scientifically arrange work and rest, ensure sleep, etc.

According to Wang Dengfeng, at the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Education and 15 other departments jointly issued the "Bright Action Work Plan for the Prevention and Control of Myopia in Children and Adolescents (2021-2025)", which was expanded from 8 departments in 2018 to 15 departments in 2021. This implementation plan and action plan jointly define the work that the government, schools, families and individual students should do in myopia prevention and control, "Next, we will continue to summarize experience in the prevention and control of myopia after the first grade of primary school enrollment, so that the prevention and control measures can operate more accurately." Wang Dengfeng said.