Date: 2018-04-16

An Ophthalmic Nurse and Chief Executive Officer for C-Well Eye Care Center , Ilorin, Mrs Oluwatoyin Opawoye has appealed to government to include School Eye Health Services as part of school curriculum or in our educational system from the elementary level.

According to her, the eye is the window of the body , sensitive organ and without the organ , one would not only see but find it vey difficult to do much for himself or herself or develop the nation's economy.

She disclosed that the School Eye Health Screening is a form of service that is being rendered to provide and deliver comprehensive eye health care services to school growing children which everybody should embrace .

Mrs Opawoye dropped these hints in Ilorin , the Kwara state capital while participating on a Radio Kwara programme tagged "Health Half Hour"

The Ophthalmic Nurse also stressed the need for the government to open a website to help the school children to have a first hand knowledge about the importance of the eye and go for eye check up on regular basis to avoid blindness.

According to her , the nation should ensure that it abides by the United Nations Convention on the Right of Children that makes it mandatory for every child to have right to good health , education and standard of living explaining that poor eye sights would definitely affect achieving such goals.

She enjoined parents and teachers to always examine the eyes of their children and pupils at all times particularly when they resume for a new semester or new academic cal lender year while government should create more awareness on the importance of protecting the eyes and ensuring regular eye checkups .

Mrs Opawoye highlighted some of the causes of blindness to cataract which deals majorly with old age and the leading cause of blindness ,glaucoma , a silent killer which is symptomless and refractive error or as a result of injuries which is common among school children or industrial accident as well as vitamin A Deficiency.

She cautioned against self medication warning that such action is killing to the eye and that mothers should guide against using breast milk to treat babies that have discharges or moguls in their eyes as it would cause damage but rather urged people to visit the eye center for professional medical attention.