Akwa Ibom government has approved training programmes for teachers on identification of early sight defects among children in the ongoing free and compulsory education in the state. The approval for the training was given by Governor Godswill Akpabio when a delegation of African Council of Optometry led by its president, Dr Uduak Udom, paid him a courtesy visit at Government House Uyo yesterday.

Chief Akpabio stated that the involvement of his administration in the training programme would be through the Ministry of Health which would assist in checking eye defects among children at the early age. ‘‘We will be ready to work with the African Council of Optometry immediately to identify eye problems otherwise the essence of the free and compulsory education may not be easily attained,’’ the governor said.

He acknowledged the emergence of an Akwa Ibom indigene at the topmost position of the council, urging Dr Udom and other Akwa Ibom indigenes to maintain the state’s leadership profile wherever they find themselves. The President, African Council of Optometry, Dr Udom said the 40-year-old organization was in Uyo for a conference on public health care issues. Dr Udom also said that her emergence at the leadership of the organization was through nomination at a conference in Uganda recently.

She stated that the organization has undertaken the training of teachers on identification of eye defects in children in most states of Nigeria and East African countries, and in training of military troops in Darfur. The president of the organization indicated that 80 per cent of learning involved the eye, noting that it was effort at complementing and contributing its quota to the success of the free and compulsory education in Akwa Ibom State.