China Education Ministry Shows Concern On Myopia Epidemic, Advises Eye Exercises

Education ministry of China has requested all the students of the country to adopt eye exercises twice a day to beat myopiadefine, which lately has attained epidemical situation in all its provinces.

Chinese are getting myopic due to stretched reading hours and detailed minute work. Recent figures show the degeneration of eye sights of many Chinese students is mainly due to competitive education, for which students study in poorly lit libraries straining to read the Chinese characters.

Official Xinhua news agency made a statement that around 31.7 percent of primary school students and 82.7 percent of university students have impaired vision.

Experts say that extreme straining of eyes is the cause for around 45 percent of these cases and is not genetically inherited. Recent studies from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University reveal that Chinese become myopic due to intensive close work.

China, is now known as the second myopic country in the world after Japan and most of the myopic share here goes to children. About 17 percent of school children under the age of 17 in Hong Kong are myopic.

A report by China Youth Activity Center, states that nearsightedness in elementary and middle school students is due to reading in poor light in the evening, straining the eyes. Roughly 55% of the myopic children have inherited it.

The vice minister of education, Chen Xiaoya , suggested that the school authorities should get into action for lowering the academic load on students and develop better facilities. The ministry advised the schools to organize eye exercise sessions for the students in morning and afternoon.

Now, as millions of university aspirants are ready to appear for China's national college entrance examination or "gaokao" soon, the ministry has ordered the instructions. These entrance examinations an extremely challenging and treated as make-or-break deal for getting ahead.

This rapid increase of myopiadefine amongst the Chinese youth displays an environmental influence too. A treatment campaign for myopia would certainly perk up the quality of life for millions of Chinese people and in turn, have extensive positive economic implications for the country.