There are children in primary school and many parents feel the same way: every school check-up, the list of visually impaired persons is growing longer, and there are more children in the class with glasses than a year. Although we have prevented children from watching television on their cell phones and sitting on their feet, in the second and third grades, the children find their eyeslids down and then they have to wear their first glasses. As an ordinary mother, i consulted with child ophthalmologists during this period, and looked at the latest official control documents issued by the ministry of education and the national commission for health and health, finding that many parents have been doing useless work and actually keeping to the key points of their children's vision, but only five things。
The latest set of official monitoring data, which is not just an old article found on the internet, is the result of a public monitoring by the national agency for disease control in september 2026: the overall near-sightedness rate for students in 2025 was 49. 9 per cent, compared to 53. 6 per cent in 2018, and the overall data decreased for the fifth consecutive year, but the low-age near-sightedness risk for the primary school population is still not negligible. In line with the goals set out in the plan of action for the promotion of the five health care for children and adolescents (2026-2030), the near-sightedness rate of primary school pupils will need to be contained within 32 per cent by 2030, while the problem of the rapid depletion of reserve stocks in the lower grades is currently the most common in paediatric ophthalmology。
Many parents have a huge cognitive error: near-sightedness is the fact that they look at cell phone tablets too much, so that children do not look near as long as they stop using electronics. The ophthalmologist told me that electronics are just one of many triggers. At the heart of the real near-sightedness of primary school students is the premature overdrafting of distant-vision reserves. The child's eyes were small at the time of birth and brought with him a natural “sight-seeing little vault”, which is a physical distant vision, which, with age, will be steadily depleted. If the close proximity of primary school is too heavy and natural light contact is insufficient, the reserve will be depleted in just one or two years, and the near-sighted will come to the door. Even without touching an electronic screen, long hours of writing homework, drawings, puzzles and reading drawings can prompt near-sightedness。
Once a near-sightedness occurs, the eye-axis length of the eye is irreversibly altered and there is currently no way to completely cure the child's near-sightedness. All our efforts have two objectives: first, to delay as much as possible the child's first near-sighted age; second, if it is already close-sighted, the control level does not increase rapidly to avoid a high degree of near-sightedness. The next five items, all from the 2026 edition of the guidelines for the prevention and control of near-sightedness and the official circular of the ministry of education on the protection of distant vision reserves, are free of bias and an iq tax, so that the eyes of children can be protected to the greatest extent possible, provided that families and schools cooperate。
First thing: two hours of daily natural light, and debris accumulation
Among all near-sighted controls, daytime outdoor activity is the least costly and most well-documented form of protection. The rationale is simple: there is plenty of natural out-of-door light that stimulates retinad dopamine, directly inhibits the rapid increase in eye axles, and outdoor light intensity in the dark is still much higher than indoor light, and it also has eye-protective effects, and only night walks are not controlled。
When many parents see the standard of two hours a day, the first reaction is simply not possible. Children go to school in the morning and after school in the afternoon, it gets darker and they have to take remedial classes on weekends, with little time available for the whole block. An official guide had long given the solution: it would not take two consecutive hours at once and the cumulative time of fragmentation would be equally effective. We can split time: 10 minutes in the morning to walk to school; 10 minutes in the morning to urge children to walk out of the classroom and not to sit down at the desk; half an hour in the playground after lunch; 40 minutes after school to play in the district and in the park after school; and a weekend to make up the rest of the week, which is 14 hours cumulatively。
It corrects a few widely shared misconceptions. First, eye protection is not equal to high-intensity sports, running, playing, jumping ropes are certainly good, even if it is just outdoor walking, looking at the clouds, far away from the scenes, and the effect of eye protection is the same; second, with the sun out of the window, the glass filters out the effective spectrum and fails to protect the eyesight; and third, do not wait until the summer break to raid the outdoors, close-vision defenses are maintained daily, and daily accumulation is critical. The school is responsible for guaranteeing outdoor activities during school hours, while the responsibility for eye protection after school hours and weekends falls on our parents. Many children spend their weekends at home and spend their whole day in their rooms reading brushes and wasting their best eyebrows。
Second thing: strict control of close proximity with eye rhythm, 20 to 20 breaks
The prolonged use of close proximity for long periods of time is the prime cause of overdrafting the distant vision reserves. Many families manage the cell phone tablets, but allow their children to continue writing for two or three hours, and to read, practice and do manual work after doing their homework。
The latest rules of control distinguish between high and lower grade eye length: the first grade of primary school is not more than 20 minutes of continuous reading and writing, and the first grade is held at a single close distance for 30 to 40 minutes. The international 20-20-20 eye-protective method is not a problem: for 20 minutes at close range, look up at objects at a distance of 6 metres, maintain at least 20 seconds, and relax the lashes that have been constricted。
Many parents tend to ignore one thing: closeness is more than just writing. All of these are close-observation projects, which require time breaks. When working, do not let the child sit or continue to read, preferably by going to the window and looking far, under conditions that allow for a few minutes directly outside. Sitting on our familiar “one-foot-one-inch” table: a fist from the chest, an eye about 33 centimetres from the book, and a finger pointer from the pen. Do not lie down and read while in a car, these positions force the eye to double the regulation burden and accelerate the loss of vision。
The third thing is to regulate the use of screens and set clear rules for age-specific use
The national board of health and welfare has given clear standards for the control of the screens of the age range: children aged 0-3 are completely prohibited from accessing electronics; children aged 3-6 are excluded from using screen products as far as possible; after primary school, electronics are used for non-learning purposes, not for more than 15 minutes at a single time, with a cumulative control of up to one hour a day. If the course is for study, after 30 to 40 minutes of continuous use, the rest must last for a period of 10 minutes。
The selection of equipment is guided by one principle: the bigger the screen, the better. Priority projectors, television, secondary computers, minimizing the use of tablets and mobile phones. There is also a clear requirement for viewing distance: television is not less than four times the opposite angle of the screen, computer eyes are used at least 50 cm from the screen and mobile phones are kept at least 40 cm from viewing distance。
Control of electronics is not completely prohibited, and the brutal seizure of a mobile phone can easily provoke children to turn back. A better way to do this would be to agree with the child in advance, to make regular use of the scene, to have a short period of entertainment after writing, and to completely shut down all electronic screens one hour before sleeping. Don't use mobile phones as a tool to trap children, reward them, and avoid their dependence on the screen. Our parents themselves should set an example and drop their cell phones when they are with their children, otherwise all constraints will become empty rhetoric。
Fourth thing: create a suitable home-reading and writing lighting environment that avoids poor eye-sighting
Many parents pay a great deal of money to buy a net-red-eye lamp to see that a single lamp can solve the problem of the eye environment. Here is a very critical knowledge point: at night, when working, the lamp plus the room top light must be turned on simultaneously. If only one desktop lamp is turned on, the environment is wide-ranging, the light contrasts strongly, and the eyes are easily exhausted and the eye burden increases。
The average radiance of the reading and writing desktop cannot be lower than 300 lekes, the light is smooth, and there is no sharp reflection or dazzling. The selection of lamps gives preference to products that meet national mandatory standards and do not blindly believe in various special eye-protective functions that are expensive and promoted online. The lamp is placed on the side of the writer to avoid writing with the hand blocking the light source and leaving a shadow on the workbook. During daytime work, preference is given to natural light, rather than back-to-winding windows, avoiding direct light exposure to the book reflecting the eye. The desks are placed by windows as far as possible, and there is sufficient natural light to ensure on a daily basis。
In addition to the light, the learning tables and chairs try to select formulas that can be adjusted for up and down, adjust the height of the desktop and chair to the height of the child and ensure that the child maintains a positive reading and writing position throughout the journey. Books, practice books, the selection of dumb paper, formal teaching aids with font sizes that meet national standards, and poor print materials with severe reflections and too small fonts add to the invisible eye fatigue. In november 2026, a new version of the school classroom lighting and lighting sanitary standards will be implemented, and the state has begun to improve the protective environment at the level of school hardware。
The fifth thing is to establish a complete visual health file and regularly monitor forward-looking reserves so that early intervention can take place
Many parents judge the child's vision, relying only on simple eye-watch screening in schools once or twice a year, which is the biggest loophole. Naked eyesight is normal and does not mean that reserves of vision are sufficient. In order to have a real grasp of the child's development state, it is necessary to perform a professional test of light and to establish a permanent continuous electronic archive of vision。
In accordance with the latest regulations, primary and secondary schools complete two visual monitoring sessions each semester; it is recommended that the primary school stage take the child to a regular medical institution for an annual scavenger test to record eye axle length and far-sighted reserve values and track annual trends. If a doctor assesses that a child's long-sighted reserves are falling too fast and are in a state of high-risk alert for near-sightedness, he or she immediately strengthens the first four eye-protective measures, increases the length of the outdoors, reduces the burden of close learning and delays the arrival of near-sightedness through timely interventions。
There is also a need to correct the extreme mentality of parents. The first is to detect a slight decline in vision, immediate anxiety and panic, to look everywhere for partiality, eye massages, health care, and to hope that it can be cured; the second is to think that it is merely a false near-sightedness, without care, to delay the hospital examination and that by the time of re-examination it has developed into a genuine near-sightedness. Perceptions can be recovered by relaxing through rest, but real near-sightedness is irreversible, and it is only right when diagnosed, following the scientific lensing of the ophthalmologist's programme and with a reasonable increase in control. All the physiotherapy products declared to be curing near-sighted are not supported by authoritative medical evidence and parents must be rationally identified。
In addition to these five core measures, sleep and daily diet also serve as complementary protections. Primary school pupils are guaranteed a minimum of 10 hours of sleep per day, adequate sleep at night ensures normal development of the eye, and lack of sleep disrupts the mechanisms of eye control and accelerates near-sightedness. The daily diet is balanced, with more fresh vegetables, quality proteins, control of the intake of sweets, sugary beverages, and large sugar intakes indirectly affect the resilience of the filament and accelerate the length of the eye axle. Blueberries and carrots can only be used to supplement daily diets, without the magic effect of eating one food to prevent or cure near-sightedness, and without the blind purchase of expensive eye-care items。
As parents who spend their days with their children in school, we are the first and most important duty-bearers of the child's close-vision control. The school is responsible for management and monitoring during school hours, but after school hours, weekends and summer holidays, the eye habits depend entirely on family supervision. Close-vision control is not an individual's task and requires the cooperation of families, schools and medical institutions. We can effectively reduce the probability that children will wear glasses early and early without excessive anxiety and neglecting to seize the golden window of the primary school, which is a golden window for the protection of their eyesight, and stick to these five small daily things。
Many parents have a real experience of having two children in comparable genetic conditions, one insisting on a daily outdoor and strictly controlled eye rhythm, and the other maintaining a healthy eyesight after primary school graduation, while the other has a long-term burnout, which is characterized by a serious lack of outdoor activity and the early wearing of thick glasses. Visual protection is not a collection of expensive instruments and supplements, but rather a well-established daily habit. Near-sighted control is a long-term battle, not a short-term raid, starting with the small detail of each day and protecting the precious vision of the child。
Interactive topic: how's your kids' eyesight after primary school? How long do you normally guarantee outdoor activity every day? You're welcome to talk in the comment section about your eyes。
