Work Plan for the Bright Action on Myopia Prevention and Control among Children and Adolescents (2021

1. General Requirements

Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and its Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Plenary Sessions, fully implement the spirit of the National Education Conference, place greater emphasis on the physical and mental health of children and adolescents, serve the construction of an education powerhouse, a sports powerhouse, and a Healthy China, in accordance with the requirements of the "Implementation Plan for Comprehensive Prevention and Control of Myopia in Children and Adolescents" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Plan"), firmly establish the educational philosophy of "Health First", adhere to comprehensive, scientific, precise, and effective prevention and control, implement a series of special actions, and improve the work pattern for myopia prevention and control in children and adolescents. Strengthen the overall leadership of the Party, promote coordinated efforts by the government, schools, medical and health institutions, students, families, and society, guide the whole society to establish correct views on health, education, and success, form lifestyles and learning methods conducive to the visual health of children and adolescents, educational management mechanisms, and a good social environment, and effectively improve the level of visual health among children and adolescents.

II. Work Objectives

Jointly carry out the Brightness Action for myopia prevention and control among children and adolescents, overcome the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, improve and perfect the myopia prevention and control system for children and adolescents, continuously reduce the myopia rate among children and adolescents every year until 2025, effectively enhance the visual health level of children and adolescents, and lay the foundation for achieving all the goals and tasks of the "Implementation Plan" by 2030 as scheduled.

III. Main Tasks

(1) Guide students to consciously care for and protect their eyes. Educate every student to strengthen the awareness that "everyone is the primary person responsible for their own health." Actively learn and master health knowledge such as scientific eye use and eye protection, develop healthy habits, and promote them to parents. Pay active attention to one's own visual status; when a significant change in vision is self-perceived, promptly inform parents and teachers, and seek examination and treatment at ophthalmic medical institutions as early as possible. Perform eye exercises seriously and in a standardized manner, maintain correct reading and writing postures, learn to balance work and rest, ensure reasonable daily routines, and develop scientific eye-use habits; actively participate in physical exercise and outdoor activities, engage in moderate-intensity physical activities more than three times a week, cultivate a good lifestyle, maintain sufficient sleep, avoid staying up late, reduce sugar intake, and consciously reduce the use of electronic products.

(2) Reduce students' academic burden. Guide localities to implement the "Measures for Reducing the Burden on Primary and Secondary School Students" (Jiao Ji [2018] No. 26) and the "Notice of the General Office of the Ministry of Education on Strengthening Homework Management in Compulsory Education Schools" (Jiao Ji Ting Han [2021] No. 13). Localities are required to strictly organize and arrange teaching activities based on national curriculum plans and standards, strictly adhere to "zero-based" normal teaching, focus on improving classroom teaching efficiency, and must not arbitrarily increase or decrease class hours, change difficulty levels, or adjust progress. Strengthen the coordinated management of homework quantity, time, and content by grade-level and subject groups. Boarding schools should shorten students' evening study time. Assign homework scientifically, improve the quality of homework design, promote students' completion of basic homework, strengthen practical homework, reduce mechanical and repetitive training, and ensure that student homework does not become parents' homework. Comprehensively promote full coverage of exam-free, nearby enrollment for compulsory education schools. Strictly control the number of unified in-school exams during the compulsory education stage. Guide families to cooperate with schools to effectively reduce children's academic burden, avoid blind participation in extracurricular training or following trends in signing up for classes, make reasonable choices based on children's interests and hobbies, and avoid the situation where schools reduce burdens while families increase them.

(3) Strengthen outdoor activities and physical exercise. Guide localities to implement the requirements of documents such as the Opinions of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council on Comprehensively Strengthening and Improving School Physical Education in the New Era, the Opinions on Deepening the Integration of Sports and Education to Promote the Healthy Development of Adolescents (Ti Fa [2020] No. 1), the Action Plan for the Construction of the "Eight Major Systems" of National Youth Campus Football (Jiao Ti Yi [2020] No. 5), and the Notice of the General Office of the Ministry of Education on Further Strengthening the Physical Fitness Management of Primary and Secondary School Students (Jiao Ti Yi Ting Han [2021] No. 16). Strengthen physical education classes and extracurricular exercise, and strive to ensure that students have one hour of physical activity time each day both on and off campus. Encourage schools at the basic education stage to offer one physical education class per day. Establish and improve a national system for children's and adolescents' sports activities, guide localities to carry out fitness popularization work for children and adolescents through various forms and channels, and attract more children and adolescents to participate in outdoor sports activities. Fully implement the system of sports homework for students during winter and summer vacations, and guide parents to create a good family sports atmosphere. Children who are already myopic should further increase their outdoor activity time to slow the progression of myopia. Encourage and support children to participate in various forms of sports activities, enabling them to master 1–2 sports skills, and guide children to develop lifelong exercise habits.

(4) Use electronic products in a scientific and standardized manner. Guide localities to implement the "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Mobile Phones for Primary and Secondary School Students" (Jiao Ji Ting Han [2021] No. 3), publicize the harms of excessive mobile phone use by primary and secondary school students and the necessity of strengthening management, ensure that mobile phones are brought into campuses in a limited manner and are prohibited from being brought into classrooms. School education should use electronic products reasonably based on the principle of need; teaching and homework assignments should not rely on electronic products. The duration of using electronic products for teaching shall原则上 not exceed 30% of the total teaching time, and paper-based homework shall be adopted in principle. Parents should strengthen supervision and management of their children's mobile phone use, guide them to treat mobile phones scientifically and rationally and use them reasonably, forming a collaborative educational synergy between home and school.

(5) Implement vision health monitoring. Establish a vision health monitoring database for children and adolescents, conduct annual nationwide dynamic vision monitoring for children and adolescents, and strive to achieve full coverage of myopia monitoring at the county (district) level. Guide localities to strictly implement national basic public health service requirements regarding eye care and vision screening for children aged 0–6, ensuring early monitoring, early detection, early warning, and early intervention, with an annual eye care and vision screening coverage rate exceeding 90% for children aged 0–6. Rely on existing resources to establish and promptly update electronic vision health records for children and adolescents, transferring them in real time upon school enrollment. Conduct rigorous vision screening for primary and secondary school students, promptly updating ocular health data into electronic vision health records, and providing personalized, targeted prevention and control plans for those identified with vision abnormalities or suspected eye diseases.

(6) Improve the visual environment for students. Guide localities to improve teaching facilities and conditions, implement lighting and illumination requirements for classrooms, dormitories, libraries (reading rooms), etc., encourage the procurement of adjustable desks and chairs and posture correctors that meet standards, and provide students with a learning environment that meets eye hygiene requirements. Adjust student seating monthly based on seating viewing angles, classroom lighting conditions, and changes in students' vision, and personalize the height of desks and chairs each semester to adapt to students' growth and development. Strictly follow the "Hygiene Requirements for Myopia Prevention and Control in Learning Supplies for Children and Adolescents" to ensure that children and adolescents use textbooks, supplementary materials, study magazines, exercise books, exam papers, study newspapers, preschool reading materials, as well as general classroom luminaires, desk lamps for reading and writing, and teaching multimedia that meet hygiene requirements. Encourage the procurement and use of certified optometry-related products and optometry and glasses-fitting services.

(7) Improve the quality of professional guidance and correction. Leverage the professional strengths of hospitals to continuously enhance eye health service capabilities. Develop follow-up intervention measures, and promptly record examination and correction results in electronic health records for children and adolescents' vision. Utilize the research capabilities of universities and research institutes to conduct key research on myopia prevention and control, and strengthen the application of research achievements and technologies in myopia prevention and treatment. Fully leverage the role of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in myopia prevention and control among children and adolescents, formulate and implement integrated correction plans combining Traditional Chinese and Western medicine, and promote the application of TCM-specific techniques and methods.

(8) Strengthen vision health education. Issue guidelines for myopia prevention and control across different educational stages, including preschool (ages 0–6), primary school (ages 7–12), and secondary school (ages 13–18), to guide children and adolescents in developing scientific eye-use habits and behaviors. Based on the development of health education video courses for the compulsory education stage, establish a national resource library for children’s and adolescents’ vision health education. Formulate and issue the “Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening and Improving School Hygiene and Health Education in the New Era.” Train and cultivate health education teachers, and develop, expand, and effectively utilize health education curriculum resources. Support and encourage students to establish in-school health education clubs to carry out peer education on vision health. Strengthen the construction of an expert think tank for myopia prevention and control, encourage various stakeholders to actively conduct publicity and education activities on myopia prevention, and carry out in-depth expert lectures on comprehensive myopia prevention and control for children and adolescents.

4. Safeguard Measures

(1) Strengthen inter-departmental coordination and promotion. Fully leverage the role of the joint conference mechanism for comprehensive prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents, coordinate the annual key tasks of member units of the joint conference mechanism and all provinces, assign responsibilities, provide robust institutional guarantees, a solid organizational foundation, and an effective work system for myopia prevention and control in children and adolescents, and effectively promote the implementation of the Bright Action Work Plan. Convene the national joint conference on comprehensive prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents and the national on-site meeting on comprehensive prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents annually, formulate and implement work plans for myopia prevention and control in children and adolescents, and compile the national annual report on myopia prevention and control in children and adolescents each year.

(2) Conduct evaluation, assessment, and supervision. Each year, carry out nationwide evaluation and assessment of myopia prevention and control among children and adolescents for provincial-level people's governments, incorporating myopia prevention and control work, overall myopia prevalence, and physical health status into government performance evaluations. Strengthen supervision of myopia prevention and control efforts to continuously reduce the myopia rate among children and adolescents, guide and promote the precise, tiered implementation of relevant policy requirements across regions, and steadily improve awareness rates of vision health knowledge, improvement rates of students' eye-use behaviors, compliance rates of visual environment conditions, and excellence rates in meeting student physical health standards.

(3) Create a favorable social atmosphere. All localities should fully leverage the exemplary and leading role of myopia prevention and control reform pilot zones and pilot counties (cities, districts). Relying on health education activities such as the "Teachers and Students' Health, China's Health" campaign and "National Eye Care Day," strengthen scientific guidance and typical reporting to foster a positive social environment characterized by government leadership, inter-departmental coordination, expert guidance, school education, and family cooperation, ensuring that every child has bright eyes and a promising future.