Free spectacles raise attainment levels for schoolchildren in developing countries

18 March 2011

A study of primary schools in one of the poorest parts of China shows that only three out of every 100 children with vision problems actually wore glasses. The study, co-authored by researchers from Oxford and Minnesota Universities, suggests that the cost of spectacles is not the main obstacle. One third (462) of the sample of 1,066 children turned down the offer of free spectacles – usually because the parents of the children did not approve of them wearing glasses. However, children who accepted the free glasses dramatically improved their school test scores after the year-long trial by the equivalent of up to a half year of schooling.

This study is one of the first to be conducted into how poor vision affects the academic performance of children in developing countries. The trial began in summer 2004 in Gansu province in Western China and involved about 19,000 children aged 9-11 years old from 165 schools. The schools were divided into those that received free glasses and the remaining 62 schools that served as controls – where there was no intervention.

Following eye tests, around 12 per cent (1,528) of the total cohort were found have poor vision. Parents and children who turned down the offer of free spectacles were from a range of socio-economic backgrounds. In China, a commonly held but mistaken view is that wearing glasses causes young children’s eyes to deteriorate faster. The children who started to wear spectacles for the first time improved their attainment levels after one year by an amount equivalent to gains in learning from an extra quarter- to half-year of schooling. The children’s academic scores were taken following tests in Chinese, mathematics and science, both before and after the year-long trial.

Study co-author Professor Albert Park, from the Department of Economics and School for Interdisciplinary Area Studies at the University of Oxford, said: ‘Our study has identified that we have huge potential to improve the educational prospects of children at schools in developing countries with a simple, relatively cheap intervention. We have also found that the provision of free spectacles to schools is relatively easy to implement. Very little data exists on the problem of poor eyesight in children in the developing world and to what extent it is blighting their learning. Two of the UN’s eight Millennium Development Goals focus on education, yet this study shows that school enrolment is only one factor. Children need to be able to fulfill their educational potential to have brighter futures and contribute to their country’s economic development.’

This research paper publishes for the first time the results of a study, the Gansu Vision Intervention Project, co-directed by Professor Park and involving a team of Chinese and international researchers, in cooperation with the Ministries of Health and Education in Gansu Province. The Gansu Vision Intervention Project collected data on student characteristics, academic test scores, and standard of eyesight in the summer of 2004, with follow-up data on test scores collected a year later. Optometrists contracted by the project travelled to each town to conduct the in-depth eye tests for students who accepted the offer of glasses and, if poor vision was confirmed, to prescribe appropriate lenses. The researchers are undertaking further research to study the impact of eyeglasses on older children and plan to study the effectiveness of different ways of promoting the wearing of spectacles to children with poor eyesight.

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