The Education Ministry’s campaign to test the vision of children has now been extended for an extra month up to the end of April to cover 240,000 kindergarten and primary school children.

The campaign was launched at the beginning of this year with the National Commission for Children and the Ebsar Foundation.

Mohammad Towfik Bellow, secretary-general of the foundation, said that under the guidance of Abdullah bin Ahmed Al-Thaqafi, the director general of education in Jeddah, they decided to extend the campaign to cover all private and government kindergartens and primary schools in Jeddah.

Bellow explained that this campaign was initiated to rehabilitate 50 public health and disability management programs in a manner that would enable them to assist children with sight and hearing impairments.

In the first phase, they targeted kindergarten and primary school students using the “I Spy” program for early detection.

This is a computer game used by specialists to determine whether a child needs spectacles or other treatment.

Bellow said they had set up workshops at 10 kindergarten and primary schools in Jeddah for boys and girls, covering 8,000 students between the ages of five and eleven.

Eye examinations were carried out from 9 a.m. to 12 noon, and each test took six minutes.

He said the campaign is expected to cost SR8.45 million, and includes training for 28 optometrists, 10 ophthalmologists, 59 employees from the health sector and eight employees from the education sector.

More than 240,000 kindergarten and elementary school children are expected to benefit from the campaign in total.