Mandatory for parents to produce vision and hearing certificates of the children in Bengaluru schools

Health ministry mandates parents of Class 1 children to produce vision and hearing certificate
Mandatory for parents to produce vision and hearing certificates of the children in Bengaluru schools
Mandatory for parents to produce vision and hearing certificates of the children in Bengaluru schools
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Karnataka health ministry has made it mandatory for children to get their ears and eyes screened prior to admission to 1st standard.

Parents have to produce the certificates to the school management at the time of admissions from the next academic year. The onus to get the test done will be on parents, reported The Hindu.

Times of India quoted health minister UT Khader saying, “The government will soon frame guidelines as part of its State Eye Health Policy.”

This step is taken after recommendations from a technical committee headed by ophthalmologist Dr Krishna Prasad.  Its recommendations included making refractive eye status compulsory during admissions, along with the child's hearing condition and blood group.

The technical committee was set up in October 2015 for the implementation of National Programme of Control of Blindness (NPCB) to identify lapses in the implementation of the programme and other related issues, reported TOI.

 “Parents will have to get their children tested and obtain the required certificates. We have a team of doctors under the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram. However, we lack sufficient specialist refractory optometrists and equipment required for the refractive tests. We will work towards filling all vacancies and procure equipment. As part of the policy, eye, ear tests and blood group will be made compulsory,”Khader said.

While the government may have only now woken up to the need of conducting such tests prior to admissions, many private schools in Bengaluru insist on a yearly medical fitness certificates for heir students.

Though the state government has made eye and ear tests mandatory only now, many private schools already insist on yearly medical fitness certificates for heir students.

Mansoor Ali Khan, secretary of management of independent CBSE schools association said that the health records will help schools react when a child falls ill on campus and take appropriate action.

Technical committee member Dr Chandrashekhar Shetty said that the application form will have an extra column where parents have to furnish the details of the test certificates.

However, though the committee hopes that this will help health department cover all government schemes, it has not suggested how it can be implemented.

“The government will be able to extend scheme benefits to the poor,” he said.

This is an aggregated report from Times of IndiaThe Hindu

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