How vision influences learning

In June 2013, a project of the Rural Education Action Program (REAP) with the title 'Seeing is Learning: Vision Care Services for Migrant Youth’ has been started. This currently one year cooperation project is conducted by IAMO, the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University (USA), the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (China) and the Northwest Socioeconomic Development Research Center (China). Its starting point is the high number of Chinese schoolchildren with poor vision who lack adequate visual aids. By working with teachers, the project aims to measure the vision problems of schoolchildren in rural China, will analyse the impact of those problems on student performance and take this as a basis for improving ophthalmologic care. Besides for advising the relevant national authorities the scientific results shall also be presented on conferences and in medical training centers. Stiftung der Deutschen Ophthalmologischen Gesellschaft/Gesellschaft für Augenheilkunde (AUGE) sponsors this international project with US$ 13,000.