500,000 IN SPECTACLES

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 December 1935, Page 8

500,000 IN SPECTACLES

CHILDREN’S BAD SIGHT. Half a million children in British schools are wearing spectacles. Last year 180,000 pairs were prescribed by the school oculists, state.s the “Daily Express.” ' Nearly a quarter of the children ,who leave school in many parts of the country are suffering from defective vision, due mainly, it is believed, to the intensive study they have to undertake with long periods of eyestrain, at school. Secondary school children suffer much worse than those in the elementary schools. And the girls more often have to wear glasses than the boys. Inquiries made for the Board of Education confirm this. In Flintshire only SJ per cent, of the older elementary school children had defective vision. In the secondary’ schools the proportion was IS per cent. “This is due to the fact that they are subjected to mental strain,” a medical officer stated. London County Council figures show how the last few years at the secondary school increases the need for glasses. At the age of 12 in the secondary schools 14§ per cent of the boys and IGS per cent, of the girls were wearing glasses. By the time they had reached the age of 15 the proportion had risen to 18?. per cent, boys 'and 21?. per cent, girls. While the eyesight of the secondary school scholars had deteriorated between the ages of 12 and 15, that of elementary senool boys and girls had improved between the age of 12 and leaving school at 14. “The more serious strain in reading,” states the medical officer, “has a detrimental effect on the eyesight of the secondary school children.”