Reply to Proposal No. 2863 of the Second Session of the 13th National People's Congress

　Your suggestions on strengthening myopia prevention and control in children and adolescents have been received. The following is a response to the parts related to the Ministry of Education's business:

　　The issue of myopia among children and adolescents is related to their healthy growth, connecting with the Central Committee of the CPC and the State Council on one hand, and with hundreds of millions of families and children on the other. In 2018, General Secretary Xi Jinping made important instructions on the issue of student myopia and made clear requirements at the National Education Conference. Leading comrades of the State Council also made important instructions, fully reflecting the high importance and care of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council for the physical and mental health of children and adolescents.

　　In order to implement the important instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping on the issue of student myopia, on August 30, 2018, the Ministry of Education and eight other ministries jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for the Comprehensive Prevention and Control of Myopia in Children and Adolescents" (Jiaotiyi [2018] No. 3). In the past year, various departments, regions, and schools have worked together to advance the implementation of the work, and the whole society has made important progress in the comprehensive prevention and control of myopia.

　　 I. Improve the system and mechanism to promote the construction of a standardized system for student myopia prevention and control

　　The Ministry of Education and the National Health Commission jointly held a national video conference on comprehensive prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents on April 3, 2019, to deploy the continued promotion of comprehensive prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents in the new era. The Ministry of Education, the National Health Commission, and the State Administration for Market Regulation respectively issued a division of work plan for the "Implementation Plan for Comprehensive Prevention and Control of Myopia in Children and Adolescents", improving the work responsibility system and elaborating on the implementation measures. Guide and supervise local areas in developing provincial implementation plans. 22 provinces, including Heilongjiang, Chongqing, and Jiangxi, have issued provincial plans, and plans for other provinces are about to be issued.

　　The Ministry of Education and the National Health Commission have signed a letter of responsibility with 29 provincial people's governments to comprehensively strengthen the comprehensive prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents, and other provinces will complete it soon. The letter of responsibility clarifies the responsibilities and tasks of the Ministry of Education, the National Health Commission, and provincial people's governments. From 2019 to 2023, provincial people's governments will strive to reduce the overall myopia rate of children and adolescents by more than 0.5% per year on the basis of the overall myopia rate in 2018, and provinces with a myopia rate higher than the national average will strive to reduce it by more than 1% per year.

　　On May 31, 2019, the Ministry of Education issued "Letter on Establishing a Joint Conference Mechanism for National Comprehensive Prevention and Control of Myopia in Children and Adolescents", together with the Central Propaganda Department, the National Health Commission, the General Administration of Sport, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the State Administration of Radio and Television, and the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, establishing a joint conference mechanism for national comprehensive prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents, strengthening the organization and leadership, macro guidance, coordination, comprehensive management, major research, and supervision and inspection of comprehensive prevention and control of myopia.

　　 II. Strengthen publicity and education, and build a student vision health education and prevention line

　　The Ministry of Education, together with the National Health Commission, organized the 2019 national "Love Eyes Day" activity, attended by Sun Chunlan, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council. The Ministry of Education will include the comprehensive prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents as an important part of the "Teachers and Students' Healthy China Healthy" themed health education activities. On May 15, 2019, the Ministry of Education held the launch ceremony of the "Teachers and Students' Healthy China Healthy" themed health education activities at Beijing Primary School and held the first lecture of the national expert lecture group on comprehensive prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents.

　　The Ministry of Education's website launched a special webpage on "National Comprehensive Prevention and Control of Myopia in Children and Adolescents" themed "Cherishing Bright Eyes, Building a Bright Future", releasing 16 episodes of popular micro-lessons on children and adolescents' eyesight protection and 8 episodes of public welfare animation on myopia prevention and control in children and adolescents produced by relevant units guided by the Ministry of Education. The situation of relevant departments' implementation of the "Implementation Plan for Comprehensive Prevention and Control of Myopia in Children and Adolescents" was summarized and released through the media.

　　The national education system has made solid progress in the comprehensive prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents, taking the 24th "Love Eyes Day" as an opportunity. Provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) such as Tianjin, Inner Mongolia, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hainan, and Qinghai combined the publicity and education on the comprehensive prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents with the 2019 "Teachers and Students' Healthy China Healthy" themed health education activities, deepening the effectiveness of publicity and education.

　　On June 27, 2019, the Ministry of Education announced the list of members of the national expert lecture group on comprehensive prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents, and will carry out myopia prevention and control lectures on an ongoing basis. The lectures will be combined with research and supervision of comprehensive prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents in local areas, to deepen myopia prevention and control publicity and education. National teaching guidance committees for primary and secondary schools and colleges and universities will be established, guiding the two teaching guidance committees to focus on myopia prevention and control.

　　 III. Strengthen full-process management and improve the monitoring, early warning, and follow-up management prevention line

　　The Ministry of Education, together with the National Health Commission and the Ministry of Finance, deployed and completed the verification of myopia rates in various provinces in 2018, ensuring that the data is clear and the situation is understood. The Ministry of Education included the random checks of students' vision health status in the 2018 "National Student Physical Health Standards" test random check and review project, completed the random checks of myopia rates in various provinces, and ensured "double insurance" of myopia rate data in various places. According to the check, the overall myopia rate of children and adolescents nationwide in 2018 was 53.6%.

　　Cooperate with the National Health Commission to further standardize the diagnosis and treatment of refractive errors in children and adolescents. Establish an expert guidance group on the prevention and treatment of myopia in adolescents, strengthening professional training and technical guidance for myopia prevention and treatment in medical and health institutions at all levels. Establish a division of labor and cooperation mechanism between school hospitals, primary medical and health institutions, and ophthalmological specialized institutions. Explore the establishment of an information-based visual health management and monitoring system, promoting the investigation and follow-up evaluation of the occurrence and development of refractive errors in adolescents, and achieving full-time and full-process prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents.

　　Promote the Central Propaganda Department to establish a network game ethics committee to guide network game enterprises to fulfill their social responsibilities. The operating units of more than 20 games have been ordered to rectify. The National Health Commission, the Ministry of Education, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and other departments issued three special notices to regulate the correction of myopia in children and adolescents, strengthen supervision, carry out "double random" inspections of kindergartens, off-campus training institutions, and school lighting in 2019, and conduct special supervision and inspection of the measurement of glasses fitting places, rectifying the chaos in the myopia correction market and protecting the health rights and interests of children and adolescents.

　　 IV. Form a joint prevention and control force, and establish a comprehensive prevention line for schools, families, and students

　　The Ministry of Education approved the establishment of 29 national reform pilot areas for myopia prevention and control in children and adolescents and 84 pilot counties (cities and districts) to carry out reform experiments and pilot work, strengthen demonstration and leadership, increase investment, improve quality, and achieve results. Promote the General Administration of Sport to carry out the creation of model cities for national fitness and model counties (cities and districts) for national sports and fitness, guiding adolescents to actively participate in fitness activities.

　　On December 28, 2018, the Ministry of Education and eight other departments issued the "Measures for Reducing the Burden on Primary and Secondary School Students", combining with the deepening of education reform, through measures such as standardizing school running behaviors, strictly managing off-campus training institutions, families fulfilling their educational guardianship responsibilities, and strengthening government supervision and management, to implement myopia prevention and control measures for children and adolescents from the source.

　　The Ministry of Education held a meeting on the implementation of the spirit of the National Education Conference on school physical education and art education and the fourth meeting of the leading group for national youth campus football, deploying the promotion of myopia prevention and control through physical exercise, promoting local areas and schools to strictly implement one hour of in-school physical activity for youth students every day, and promoting parents to guide and supervise adolescents to complete 1-2 hours of outdoor activities after school every day. Cooperate with the General Administration of Sport to implement the youth sports activity promotion plan, improve the standards of youth sports venues and facilities, and actively promote the use of social sports venues by youth for physical exercise.

　　In collaboration with the National Health Commission, we promote scientific myopia prevention knowledge and raise public and children's and adolescents' awareness of myopia prevention through various methods, including developing core information and publicity and education tools for myopia prevention, establishing health science popularization teams, and carrying out myopia prevention activities on campuses.

　　 V. Next Steps

　　Comprehensive prevention and control of myopia among children and adolescents is a systematic project and a protracted battle requiring concerted efforts from governments, schools, medical and health institutions, families, and students. The Ministry of Education attaches great importance to the comprehensive prevention and control of myopia among children and adolescents and will carefully study and actively incorporate your and the representatives' reasonable suggestions, working with relevant departments to jointly promote and continuously improve the comprehensive prevention and control of myopia among children and adolescents.

　　1. Strengthen organizational leadership. Give full play to the mechanism of the National Joint Conference on Comprehensive Prevention and Control of Myopia among Children and Adolescents, implement the requirements of the Implementation Plan for Comprehensive Prevention and Control of Myopia among Children and Adolescents, and continuously advance the work of comprehensive prevention and control of myopia among children and adolescents.

　　2. Supervise the implementation of responsibilities. The Ministry of Education and the National Health Commission have signed responsibility letters with all provinces. Supervise all provinces in implementing the responsibilities clearly defined in the responsibility letters, including funding, institution building, improving conditions, providing facilities, and reducing the overall myopia rate. Develop assessment methods for myopia prevention and control, clarifying the specific methods and requirements for the assessment of myopia prevention and control among children and adolescents.

　　3. Strengthen pilot guidance. Develop basic work standards and requirements for national reform pilot zones and pilot counties (cities and districts) for comprehensive prevention and control of myopia among children and adolescents, and strengthen guidance, research, and supervision of 113 reform pilot zones and pilot counties (cities and districts). Organize media to conduct in-depth investigations in reform pilot zones and pilot counties (cities and districts) to widely publicize and report on the practices, experiences, and achievements of myopia prevention and control reforms.

　　4. Strengthen monitoring and intervention. Deploy a new round of national student physical health surveys and monitoring to ascertain the situation and accurately grasp the trends and patterns of changes in students' physical health. Focusing on high-incidence areas and students in the lower age groups, and with increased outdoor activities, control of electronic product use, and reduction of academic burden as the main measures, promote medical-educational collaboration and prevention-treatment collaboration to guide schools and parents in implementing targeted comprehensive interventions for myopia in students. Cooperate with relevant departments to further strengthen myopia monitoring and evaluation.

　　5. Standardize medical services. Strengthen myopia screening and early detection, standardize diagnosis and treatment, and improve the level of myopia correction medical services. County-level and above comprehensive hospitals generally provide ophthalmic medical services, and strengthen training for primary-level ophthalmologists, eye health doctors, and child health doctors. Strengthen the training of optometrists to ensure that each county (city and district) has qualified optometry professionals providing standardized services. Jointly study with relevant departments policy measures to expand the functional positioning and career development space of school doctors, and encourage localities to actively explore new practices and experiences in school doctor allocation based on their actual conditions.

　　6. Strengthen health education. Annually deploy and carry out the "Teachers and Students' Healthy China" themed health education activities throughout the year. Develop a unified, progressive, and spiraling health education outline for kindergartens, primary schools, middle schools, and universities, determining the knowledge and skills that must be known and mastered at each educational stage. Revise the Regulations on School Health Work and the Guiding Outline for Health Education in Primary and Secondary Schools. Develop and issue special opinions on school health and health education work in the new era.

　　Thank you for your concern and support for the comprehensive prevention and control of myopia among children and adolescents. We welcome your further valuable suggestions.