The Visually handicapped Nigerian Child: Views Of The Primary School Teachers In Enugu, Nigeria

1. Onochie Ike Okoye
2. Ada Aghaji

Department Of Ophthalmology, University Of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, Nigeria

Purpose: To determine the views of primary school teachers about childhood visual handicap

Methods: Using pre-tested questionnaires, a pre-workshop assessment on their perception of visual handicap was conducted among 108 teachers who attended a vision-testing training workshop in June 2007 at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital Enugu, Nigeria.

Results: One hundred and two (94.4%) of these teachers had never attended an eye health workshop. Seventy-seven teachers (71.3%) stated that visually handicapped children could still be placed in regular schools instead of special education centres, though 51 (47.2%) felt that school pupils below a particular age should not use glasses or magnifiers. Twenty-three teachers (21.3%) felt that use of spectacles or magnifiers was an indication of impending blindness. Forty-two teachers (38.9%) felt that childhood squint could not be corrected. Majority of the teachers (89.8%) were ready and willing to get involved in providing care to visually handicapped school children, if given the appropriate training.

Conclusion: Obvious myths and misconceptions regarding childhood visual handicap still exist among our primary school teachers. With the attention being accorded refractive errors/low vision by the Vision 2020 initiative, there is a dire need to bridge these knowledge gaps via proper eye health information-education-communication intervention strategies targeted mainly at the primary school teachers.