China's current education system should be reformed to reduce the occurrence of nearsightedness among our children, says an article in Modern Life Daily. The following is an excerpt:

A joint research team of scientists from China, the United States and Australia released a report recently saying that 50 to 60 percent of China's youngsters are myopic and nearly 400 million Chinese have the same condition.

The most important measure to prevent myopia is to protect the eyes of children at an early age.(file photo from Xinhua News Agency)

That shows China has the biggest nearsighted population in the world. And the occurrence rate of myopia in the country is 33 percent, 1.5 times the world average.

Myopia deprives people of clear vision, causes inconvenience in their daily lives, and even results in blindness in old age.

The most important measure to prevent myopia is to protect the eyes of children at an early age.

An expert in ophthalmology pointed out that the high occurrence of myopia among small children is caused by lack of qualified opticians, too much use of computers, and incorrect physical positioning when reading and writing.

He could be right, but more important, nearsightedness in children could also be caused by too much homework and lessons.

This could be blamed on our educational system, which causes children to spend too much time on studies and preparing for numerous exams.

With insufficient time devoted to sports and other recreational activities, children lose out on becoming stronger physically.

(China Daily October 15, 2007)