The school teachers of Kenya are going to test eyes of the students through modified smart-phone called as “Pocket Optician”. Visual impairment is supposed to be one of the biggest issues in developing world and Kenyan based teachers have started using this modified cellular technology for identification of myopia and many other sighting problems. It is said that the project of detecting the visual problems in schools has been initiated by London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and this will inevitably help the students to improve their vision. The name of this kit is “Portable Eye Examination Kit”.
On the other hand, World Health Organization claims that “there are 285 million people who are suffering from the eye sight problems and they can be cured if proper treatment is provided”. WHO further adds a big majority of people -suffering from eye problems- resides in rural areas and they are not able to come to hospitals to get their eyes tested.
Apart from this, Dr Andrew Bastawrous who was also a group member that designed the Portable Eye Examination Kit said that “most of the students do not perform well in the schools due to eye sighting problems and once their eyes are cured, they will inevitably perform well in the classes”.
In addition, an ophthalmologist at Kitale District Hospital Dr Hillary Rono said that “I was really excited to know about the PEEK project and it will surely help us to cure eye problems of the school students”.
Lastly, this pilot project will initially be trialed in 10 schools of Kitale District and once the testing phase is successfully completed, this project will be implemented across the country.
