On October 19th, 2016, the National Health and Family Planning Commission Office, the Ministry of Education Office, and the General Administration of Sport Office jointly released "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Prevention and Control of Myopia in Children and Adolescents", which emphasized the need to ensure standardized teaching facilities and conditions and to provide learning environments that meet the requirements of eye hygiene. The content of the document is as follows:

To effectively control the incidence of myopia in Chinese children and adolescents and improve their visual health, the following guiding opinions are proposed to strengthen the prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents:

1.Strengthen publicity and education and enhance awareness of healthy eye use.

Publicity and education are the first steps in preventing myopia in children and adolescents. All regions should make full use of various media channels to carry out multi-level and multi-perspective publicity and education, comprehensively popularize knowledge about myopia prevention and control and healthy eye use among children and adolescents, and create a good social atmosphere for caring and valuing the prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents. Local health and family planning departments should formulate scientifically standardized guidelines for myopia prevention and control, promptly release authoritative knowledge on myopia prevention and control, encourage medical staff to fully leverage their professional advantages, actively carry out health education and scientific knowledge popularization on myopia prevention and control. Jointly with the education department, they should organize annual "Eye Care Day" themed promotional activities across the country and organize medical staff to provide guidance on myopia prevention and control publicity and education in kindergartens and primary and secondary schools. Local education departments should give full play to the role of schools as the main battlefield, implement at least one vision health education activity per semester, and use various forms such as broadcasting, bulletin boards, parent meetings, and parent letters to educate students and parents on eye health knowledge, and strive to obtain support and cooperation from parents in protecting their children's vision. Encourage and advocate for students to frequently participate in outdoor activities, actively participate in sports activities that are beneficial for eye muscle exercise, such as table tennis and badminton, maintain the correct reading and writing posture, reduce prolonged near-distance eye use, reduce the use of electronic video products, ensure sufficient sleep and balanced nutrition. Through extensive publicity, scientific knowledge of eye use can be introduced into schools, communities, and families, and the awareness of healthy eye use among children and parents can be continuously enhanced.

2.Focus on early detection and take effective intervention measures

Primary healthcare institutions should carry out vision screening for children aged 3-6 years as required by the "Technical Specifications for Children's Eye and Vision Health" and the "National Basic Public Health Service Standards", and strive to detect and intervene early. Childcare institutions should regularly check the vision of young children in accordance with the "Management Measures for Health Care in Kindergartens and Nurseries", and promptly inform parents to seek further diagnosis and treatment at medical institutions if any abnormalities are found. Primary and secondary schools should establish a regular vision monitoring system and conduct regular vision checks in accordance with the "Program for Prevention and Control of Myopia among Students in Primary and Secondary Schools". Students with a trend of declining vision and mild myopia should be classified and managed, and targeted measures should be implemented. The health and family planning departments should work with the education departments to carry out vision screening in childcare institutions and primary and secondary schools, and provide professional technical services and guidance. It is also necessary to explore the establishment of a refractive development record for children and adolescents, carry out refractive screening for them, detect refractive errors, suspicious eye diseases, and early signs of myopia, formulate tracking and intervention measures, and make every effort to reduce myopia, especially high myopia.

3. Implement Scientific Education and Create a Good Eye Care Environment

Childcare institutions should follow the requirements of the "Hygiene and Health Management Measures for Nurseries and Kindergartens" and the "Guidelines for the Learning and Development of Children Aged 3-6," scientifically arrange daily life, provide balanced and nutritious meals, ensure outdoor activities, pay attention to eye hygiene, and protect the vision of pre-school children. All primary and secondary schools should ensure that their teaching facilities and conditions (such as classroom and dormitory lighting, desk and chair configuration, blackboards, etc.) comply with relevant national documents and standards, according to the "Prevention and Control Work Plan," to provide students with a learning environment that meets eye hygiene requirements. A scientific daily routine should be developed, and courses and activities should be reasonably arranged based on the principles of combining stillness and movement, alternating between near and far vision. A sound eye exercise system should be established, and students should be organized to do eye exercises twice a day. Schools should ensure that students have at least one hour of physical activity per day on campus and encourage them to participate in outdoor activities during breaks. The workload of students should be effectively reduced, and teaching hours should not be increased arbitrarily. School activities should not be held on weekends, holidays, or summer/winter vacations, and homework time should be planned effectively.

4. Strengthen Talent Cultivation and Provide Quality Health Care Services

Health and family planning departments in various regions should incorporate eye health services into the overall development of the medical service system according to the requirements of the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" for national eye health, improve the service system, and enhance service capabilities. Scientific research on the protection of children and adolescents' vision should be strengthened to provide scientifically effective techniques and methods for myopia prevention and control. At the same time, the unique advantages of traditional Chinese medicine in medical prevention and health care should be fully utilized, and appropriate traditional Chinese medicine techniques should be used for eye care among children and adolescents. Training should be provided to improve the vision screening, diagnosis, treatment, and emergency response capabilities of grassroots ophthalmologists, eye health doctors, and child health doctors. Attention should be paid to the training of optometrists to ensure that each county has qualified eye care professionals to provide standardized services. Based on the progression of myopia in children and adolescents, scientific and reasonable correction methods should be selected. Education departments in various regions should organize regular training for leaders, principals, homeroom teachers, school doctors (health teachers), and parents under the guidance of health and family planning departments, enhance their sense of responsibility, teach them methods for myopia prevention and control, and improve the level of eye health services in schools.

5.Strengthen organizational leadership and establish a comprehensive prevention and control mechanism.

Health and family planning departments as well as education departments at all levels should work closely together to establish a mechanism to promote the prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents. This work should be incorporated into relevant health and education development plans and important agendas, and a provincial expert team for the prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents should be established to develop work plans and clarify work tasks. In areas with conditions, pilot work on the comprehensive prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents should be actively carried out, and a long-term prevention and control mechanism integrating health education, monitoring and early warning, comprehensive intervention, and tracking management should be explored, so as to promote the comprehensive development of work. At the same time, a scientific and effective supervision and evaluation mechanism should be established, and the prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents should be included in the comprehensive assessment indicators for school quality education and basic public health services. Special inspections should be organized in a timely manner to detect problems and ensure that all work measures are implemented.

Source: Official website of the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China.