Written question asked by Jonathan Shaw (Labour) on Tuesday, 17 December 2002, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 14 January 2003. It was answered by Ivan Lewis (Labour) on Tuesday, 14 January 2003 on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills.

Dept for Education and Skills

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, what recent programmes have been initiated by his Department to (a) promote early detection of specific ophthalmic conditions in children and (b) monitor their visual development; and what evaluation has been carried out as to the benefits of such programmes; what proportion of schools in England conduct vision screening for children (a) at school entry, (b) at age seven and (c) at age eleven; if he will make it his policy to gather data on the number of children with undiagnosed visual needs in (a) mainstream and (b) special school provision; what assessment he has made of the impact of undetected sight problems on the educational achievement and inclusion of children in (a) mainstream and (b) special schools; what assessment he has made of current arrangements for eye health education in schools; what guidance his Department provides to teachers on the identification of sight problems among children in (a) early years provision, (b) primary schools and (c) secondary schools; whether it is his Department's policy that children with (a) suspected reading difficulties, (b) behavioural problems and (c) other forms of special educational needs should be offered a full visual assessment. - Including figure.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 397 c581-3W;397 c579-81W; 88369;88370;88371;88372;88373;88374;88375
Session: 2002-03
Subjects: Children Assessments Admissions Diseases Eyesight Health education Pre-school education Pupils Primary education Reading Visual impairment Standards Schools Teachers Special educational needs Secondary education Testing
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk