By Jane Ng

WHEN English teacher Koh Swee Keow saw many of her students leaning forward in their seats during her lesson, she was pleased as she thought she was getting their attention.

But when they continued to do so as they copied the spelling of words from the projector screen, she realised they were having problems with their eyesight.

'They would squint. Even when I showed them pictures or video clips, they would say 'enlarge it',' said Madam Koh, an English teacher at Northlight School with more than 20 years of experience.

'Or some would come forward and sit on the floor just in front of the screen.'

She added: 'When I type on the computer and it is projected onto the screen, I use font size 18, but they say it is too small, so I have to make it size 24 and in bold.'

When a colleague described a similar experience, with students seated at the back copying words wrongly from the screen, she realised it was a problem not peculiar to just her class.

At NorthLight, which takes in only students who fail the Primary School Leaving Examination, more than a quarter of its 810 students were found to have poor eyesight that had not been corrected.

The two teachers raised the problem with the school principal, who then got the other teachers to ask their students if they could see clearly.

The informal check yielded a total of 223 students - including some already wearing spectacles - who had problems seeing clearly.

The biggest numbers were from students in Year3, at 70, and Year 1, at 67.

The educators said these numbers were much higher than what they had seen in their years of experience.

Madam Koh said: 'It affects their work. They can't comprehend certain things fully when they can't see well. It would affect anyone if they couldn't see well.'

While the schoolteachers had in the past been paying for eye checks and spectacles for some needy students, the large number of students this time round prompted principal Chua Yen Ching to contact the Singapore Optometric Association for help.

More than half the students in the school are from needy families who are on some form of financial assistance.

The association has since offered to bus the students down to its clinics next month for free eye checks and has managed to find sponsors to provide spectacles to students who cannot afford them.

Spectacle frames wholesaler Sin Kwang Optical and lens supplier Essilor have offered to provide the spectacles for those who cannot afford them.

Dr Koh Liang Hwee, 42, vice-president of the association, said he was moved when he heard that teachers in the school had been paying for spectacles.

'We want to help these students, to make sure they are not disadvantaged just because they can't see clearly. With good eyesight, they will be able to read well and hopefully improve their studies,' he said.

The students will be given an eye-care talk, at which they will be briefed on different eye problems, as well as given a thorough check up that will detect short-sightedness, astigmatism and lazy eye, among other conditions.

One student who attended a pilot eye check by the association was found to be long-sighted.

Fairin Amalina Anuar, 13, a Year1 student, said she had not been able to see words on her books and worksheets clearly since primary school, but did not tell her teachers for fear of being scolded.

Her classmate, Diana de Silva, 13, who has not gone for the check up, said she was advised to be fitted with spectacles or contact lenses in Primary3, but did not do so as her family was poor.

'My mother has no money to buy me spectacles. When I can't see what the teacher writes, I just copy from my friend.

'Now, I usually take my chair and go to the front,' said the youngest of three children whose widowed mother is a stall assistant.

NorthLight principal Mrs Chua said: 'We need to send them for a check to distinguish between a learning disability and learning disadvantage. If it is a disadvantage, then you rectify the eyesight, and you can rectify the learning.

'If one part of a student is not functioning well, it will affect them as a whole, and after a while, they stop paying attention.

'But if you don't ask them if they can see clearly, many of them don't speak up.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times.