Parents will have to submit to school certificates about their child's eye sight and hearing ability while seeking admission to first standard. The onus to get the tests done will be on the parents.
This will be among the recommendations to be made by the technical committee set up by the State Government for framing State Health Policy.
During the first meeting of the committee held here on Monday, Chandrashekar Shetty, an ophalmologist and Advisor to National Programme of Control of Blindness, said subjecting children to eye and ear tests helps in detecting defects at a early age and carryout corrective steps.
Minister for Health and Family Welfare U.T.Khader, who also attended the meeting, said checking vision and hearing defects are among aspects that health professionals have to look at during their visits to anganwadis and government schools as part of the ongoing Rashtriya Bala Swastya Yojana. But with the absence of refractionists at some places and absence of equipments for refractionists at other places, the children weee not being checked for vision and hearing defects.
Mr. Khader said parents can get their children tested either at the government hospital or at the private hospitals. If spectacles are recommended, the same would be provided free of cost by the Taluka Medical Officer. The State Government will notify hospitals where other procedures for correcting ear and eye problems would be carried out.
Mr. Khader told reporters that once the technical committee gives recommendations the State would issue notification making it mandatory for parents to submit reports of hearing and vision tests at the time of admission to class 1.
