The Ministry of Education on Thursday issued a revised plan on preventing nearsightedness in elementary and middle school children, as the incidence of eye disorders among the young continues to rise.

A teacher shows first grade students how to perform eye exercises at the Hongqi Primary School in Chongqing municipality.

The scheme, which sets out detailed requirements on the amount of homework children should do, and teachers' writing style, asks schools to incorporate "moving and still" eye activities that involve youngsters looking at things both long and short distances away into their daily curricula.

Primary school students should not be given more than one hour's homework per day, while students in grades one and two should be free from writing assignments, the document said.

This is to ensure primary students get at least 10 hours' sleep and middle school children get eight. Also, the curricula should include at least one hour of physical exercise per day.

The Ministry of Education introduced the scheme in 1988. This is its first revision.

Besides two eye tests every year, the scheme also requires schools to arrange seats according to the lighting conditions in classrooms and even demands they adjust the height of seats and desks in line with children's growth.

It also gives detailed rules on classroom arrangements. For example, the front row should be at least 2 m from the blackboard, while the back row should be a maximum of 8 m away.

The rules even require teachers to pay attention to font size and color, and screen contrast when they make Powerpoint presentations.

The scheme coincides with the newly revised eye exercise program put into practice in Beijing and Tianjin municipality. The exercise was first introduced in 1972.

Since 1985, China has launched four nationwide surveys on the health of its young, and the results show a steady decline.

The latest figures show that China ranks second in the world for its numbers of shortsighted students.

Among primary schoolchildren, the incidence rate is 28 percent, while for junior middle school students it is 60 percent.

The rate among senior middle school students is a massive 85 percent.

Under the revised scheme, teachers of elementary and middle schools must dismiss each class on time, instead of prolonging them to add in extra lessons.

(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily September 6, 2008)