Within the framework of the agreement between the DGE and Óptica La Pirámide, this initiative was carried out in order to contribute to the Strategic Literacy Plan by linking visual health with the learning of reading and writing and to be able to carry out detection work. early education and intervention that has so much impact on the learning processes.
This Thursday, at school No. 1-547 Gral. Carlos O’Donell, located in the Flores Sur neighborhood of the city, under the direction of Magdalena Cárdenas, the closing of the pilot experience of the “El Desafío de la Mirada” Project took place. 2024: Less myopia, more future”, which represents an opportunity to improve the visual health of the school community in Mendoza and lay the foundations for future interventions in this area. It should be noted that the proposal consisted of taking the visual acuity of all the school’s students, preparing and returning a report on the results, ophthalmological check-ups and diagnoses, and finally providing glasses for students.
In this sense, during the day the entire delivery of glasses to students from the entire educational community was completed, with a total of 33 pairs of glasses of which the first delivery was effective last week, completing the same this Thursday . In this way, of 133 students who were evaluated by the professionals of “La Pirámide” Opticians, 33 referrals were made due to the detection of various visual pathologies at the two levels that the educational institution has.
The event was attended by the coordinator of Educational Policies of the DGE, Adriana Yenarópulos; from the Educational Cooperation Coordination of the DGE; Leandro Rodríguez, the supervisor of section No. 54, César Mendoza; the supervisor of Initial Level section No. 1, Andrea Valero; the director of La Pirámide Ópticas chain, Ricardo Impagliazzo; the optical-contactologist technicians, Sabrina Rosatti and José Floridia; the psychopedagogue and socio-educational consultant for companies linking her actions with her community, Claudia Crisafuli, teachers, non-teachers and families.
In this regard, Adriana Yenarópulos highlighted “we are at the Gral. Carlos O’Donell school in the western neighborhood of the city of Mendoza, we have done a pilot test with La Pirámide optics that has come with its professionals to measure the vision of all the children of the school, we are very happy, it has been a work of generosity on the part of the optician, which will allow us to be able to monitor the students in terms of reading fluency and from this to measure again approximately in a month, where they are already accustomed to wearing their glasses and are practicing reading to see what result we obtain after the adaptation period and the use of this resource. It should be noted that the children left happy and their families too, we understand that it is a contribution to the community and an obligation on the part of education.”
He also added, “this is an articulation between the optician and the General Directorate of Schools, a joint work, where we have contributed the work with the students and La Pirámide the professionals. The entire practice of detecting visual problems and intervention and finally the delivery of lenses. In this sense, we are going to continue working and seeing the results of how the development of the children’s vision progresses and how it influences reading fluency,” the official concluded.
Meanwhile, Ricardo Impagliazzo expressed: “the project represents an opportunity to improve the visual health of the school community and lay the foundations for future interventions in this area from La Pirámide, with a sustainable perspective, we promote a collaborative approach to guarantee a social impact positive that translates into the success of this valuable initiative. It is interesting to have been able to help the students of this school and that from now on they have appropriate visual health and can reach adulthood in good condition, because not taking a child at this age to resolve a pathology implies that they may have a much more severe problem later and lead to visual impairment,” Impagliazzo concluded.
Claudia Crisafuli said: “Having the background of the work at the National University of Cuyo and the post-pandemic reality where there was an increase in contact with the virtual world, the company proposes to carry out early detection and intervention work precisely with the vision that both impact it has on the learning processes, given the need in this school due to its sociocultural context, the possibility of accessing medical check-ups and the opportunity that La Pirámide gives us with this tool.”
On the other hand, framing this action proposed by the company, being able to link it with the policies and educational activities of our province by adhering to the program and the reading fluency census, will allow us to evaluate in a few months what improvements have occurred in those children. who today receive their glasses. We believe that this is a factor that allows us to add to all educational management, the generation of strategic alliances, the protagonist school within this process and the support of the General Directorate of Schools. In addition, brochure material has been prepared for teachers, the institution and families promoting visual health, so we are happy to conclude this first stage as a pilot experience that leads us to readjust strategies to generate new proposals,” the consultant concluded.
For his part, José Floridia, optical-contactologist technician at La Pirámide, commented “it is a very nice experience to be able to help children improve their quality of life, from the student side, their development and development with their peers.”
In this sense, Andrea Valero and César Mendoza stated: “it is essential for students to receive this tool, make these realities visible, visit these institutions and help permanently by articulating, doing all the work in networks with other institutions to be able to strengthen the students. Therefore, we are convinced that this project represents an opportunity to improve the visual health of the school community and lay the foundations for future interventions in this area. We appreciate your commitment and its positive social impact that translates into the success of this valuable initiative.” , the supervisors concluded.
Finally, Magdalena Cárdenas, director of the Gral. Carlos O’Donell school, expressed “I am convinced that the children should be in school, that management works every day to provide and create conditions and opportunities for all our students. in relation to social and community pedagogy, incorporating new strategies, coexistence activities, proposals and programs that favor their development. That is why the educational community created the possible scenario for La Pirámide optician to deploy its tools and give our students the possibility of improving their visual health,” concluded the director.
Project “The Gaze Challenge 2024: Less Myopia, More Future”
The data collected in 2019 determine the need to work on improving the visual health of our young people and children, raising awareness about the importance of ophthalmological check-ups from an early age. Myopia is advancing at high speed throughout the world and Mendoza is no exception. It is estimated that more than 25% of our children suffer from visual pathologies, without diagnosis, such as myopia, which in advanced conditions is usually degenerative and worsens over the years, making its treatment difficult.
This directly affects the quality of learning because “a student who does not see well does not learn well.” Faced with this risk, the “Less Myopia, More Future” program, through socially responsible management, wants to contribute to the Strategic Literacy Plan (PEAM) converted into Law No. 9438, linking visual health with the learning of reading and writing as path to guarantee the right to education.
From this approach, La Pirámide, in synergy with the axes of management and public educational and health policies, promotes in this project a testing action in the child population to early detect visual disorders that can influence performance. school for primary school students, which involves specialized technicians trained by Óptica La Pirámide and the collaboration of ophthalmologist Liliana Laurencio.
Teacher Testimonials
Daniel Barboza, 5th grade teacher, and Laura Alias, 2nd grade teacher, commented: “the older kids don’t dare to say ‘I can’t see well…I’m not sitting here properly’ or some students simply didn’t want to. read but they could not; For example, the case of Yutiel Pelaytay, 7 years old, a second grade student who received the glasses in the first delivery, although he read, he confused the sounds and inverted letters when writing or reading and since he began to wearing the glasses changed completely. And from our role as educators through observation, we realized.”
“That is why this program has really solved their lives both on a personal level and in the development of activities and therefore in the family environment. And mainly, to us in our classroom practices, since it is a satisfaction to hear expressions like ‘Now I am free to read’. Seeing the changes and happiness in our students excites us as teachers and citizens; All of this has been possible thanks to the agreement between the DGE and La Pirámide optician, because they know that they gave them the freedom they needed to read, learn and, above all, be able to discover the world in another way,” the teachers concluded.
Finally, from the perspective it is expected that the project will contribute to improving the visual health of students, reducing the incidence of undiagnosed visual diseases, improving their school performance and quality of life in general. The data obtained in the visual acuity measurement, its results and interpretation, together with the corrective actions, will allow, on the one hand, to complement the data obtained in the reading fluency censuses of each student and analyze various variables that will serve as a basis for new research.
Source: DGE Press
