Three departments: Strictly prohibit unqualified institutions from entering the school to carry out vision testing, and crack down on false and illegal marketing and publicity

Screenshot of the Ministry of Education website

China Net, February 24th, according to the website of the Ministry of Education, in order to implement the “Implementation Plan for Comprehensive Prevention and Control of Myopia in Children and Adolescents” and the “Bright Action Work Plan for the Prevention and Control of Myopia in Children and Adolescents (2021-2025)”, standardize school vision testing The Ministry of Education, the National Health Commission, and the State Administration for Market Regulation jointly issued the “Notice on Further Regulating School Vision Testing and Myopia Prevention and Control-related Services” (the following referred to as the “Notice”).

The “Notice” requires that unqualified institutions are strictly prohibited from entering the school to carry out vision testing. Local health departments carry out monitoring of common diseases such as myopia among students, and local education administrative departments carry out monitoring of students’ physical health, strictly control relevant testing institutions, and resolutely prevent unqualified institutions from entering schools to carry out vision testing. Schools carry out work such as student vision monitoring, which should be reported to the local education authority for approval.

The “Notice” requires severe crackdown on false and illegal marketing and publicity. Local education administrative departments should work with health and market supervision departments to further increase the promotion of health knowledge on myopia prevention and control. Local market supervision departments should strictly investigate and punish the use of misleading expressions such as “rehabilitation”, “recovery”, “reduction of degree”, “myopia cure”, “myopia nemesis” and “degree repair” to promote the marketing and promotion of myopia prevention and control products for children and adolescents.

The “Notice” requires strict control over the quality of myopia prevention and control products and services. It is prohibited to provide myopia prevention and control products and services to the campus without relevant qualifications. Use quality certification to promote the prevention and control of myopia, carry out certifications for healthy lighting products such as classroom lighting and reading and writing lamps, ergonomic products for desks and chairs, optometry products, school supplies, optometry services, etc., to improve the quality of myopia prevention and control products and visual health service levels. Improve the government, industry, society and other multi-level certification and acceptance mechanisms, and widely publicize certified optometry products and services.

The “Notice” requires strict security management of vision monitoring data. Monitoring organization departments, schools, and testing institutions should strengthen data security management and personal information protection, and strengthen the full-cycle security protection of data collection, storage, transmission, processing, and application. Students’ personal and vision information shall not be leaked privately, and shall not be shared with third parties for commercial purposes. In serious cases, relevant personnel shall be held accountable according to laws and regulations.

The “Notice” requires strict vision testing and related service supervision and inspection. Local education administrative departments, health and health departments, and market supervision departments cooperate to carry out special inspections and supervision on the qualifications of testing personnel, work processes and methods, quality control, and the provision of products and services for myopia prevention and control, and seriously deal with fraudulent and perfunctory responsibility. Institutions, if the circumstances are serious, investigate the responsibility of the responsible persons in accordance with the law.