On June 7, 2021, the Office of the Ministry of Education issued a notice on the "Main Information Reporting Work for Regular Visual Monitoring of Primary and Secondary School Students", pointing out that with the current shift towards digital devices, it is necessary to promote visual monitoring for young people, which should include early monitoring, early detection, early warning, and early intervention as important measures. The following is the main content of the notice:

To implement the important instructions and instructions from General Secretary Xi Jinping on the prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents, and to implement the "Comprehensive Prevention and Control Implementation Plan for Myopia in Children and Adolescents" (Jiaotiyi [2018] No. 3), which requires "strictly implementing the student health examination system and the twice-per-semester vision monitoring system," the following matters related to the main information reporting work for regular visual monitoring of primary and secondary school students are notified as follows:

1.Strengthen organizational leadership. Regular visual monitoring of students is an effective way to prevent and control myopia in children and adolescents. Education departments at all levels should fully understand the importance of schools conducting visual monitoring, and carefully and orderly organize, guide, and coordinate the visual monitoring of primary and secondary school students and preschool children in local schools and kindergartens according to the regulations.

2.Move the prevention and control front forward. Education departments at all levels should guide local schools to promote the implementation of visual monitoring through issuing notifications, holding meetings, conducting field research, and other means. Schools and parents should timely check the monitoring results. Schools should remind and educate primary and secondary school students and preschool children with abnormal vision, and inform parents to take their children to ophthalmic medical institutions for further examination and confirmation, in order to control the occurrence and development of myopia. Students who are already myopic should avoid becoming highly myopic, and achieve early monitoring, early detection, early warning, and early intervention.

3.Standardize data reporting. Education departments at all levels should guide local schools to establish an information reporting system. Schools should appoint a dedicated person to be responsible for the relevant information data reporting work for visual monitoring of primary and secondary school students. Based on the National Student Physical Fitness and Health Reporting System, schools should report the visual monitoring results of primary and secondary school students once in the spring and autumn semesters respectively, with a separate report for the spring semester and a combined report for the autumn semester with the physical fitness and health data of primary and secondary school students. The data reported for visual monitoring results of primary and secondary school students mainly include the left eye visual acuity, left eye refractive error, right eye visual acuity, and right eye refractive error. The data reporting work for visual monitoring results of primary and secondary school students will be implemented from the autumn semester of 2021, and should be reported separately in the spring and autumn semesters of each academic year in the future.

4.Strengthen guarantee conditions. Education departments in all regions should strengthen services for regular vision monitoring for primary and secondary school students and preschoolers, and ensure that the "bottom line is clear, the situation is clear, and the information is clear" regarding the vision situation of local students and preschoolers. Strengthen the hospital and medical room (health room, health care room, etc.) of school and kindergarten medical staff, and equip them with standardized medical equipment for vision monitoring to ensure the authenticity, rigor, and scientificity of vision monitoring data.

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