ABSTRACT

Background: Childhood blindness is a major public health concern worldwide. In India, the prevalence of such blindness is estimated to be approximately 0.5/1,000 and at least 210,000 children have severe visual impairment (SVI) or blindness (BL). Approximately 15,000 are in schools for the blind and nearly half the causes are avoidable. Such blindness has far-reaching implications in terms of a child’s development, education and employment opportunities, the total number of disability-adjusted life years lost, social and functional challenges, and the lifelong burden on the family. Material & Methods: A pre-experimental study with one group pre-test post-test design was conducted among 79 primary school teachers to assess the level of Knowledge of the primary school teachers regarding detection of visual impairment in children. The samples were selected by purposive sampling technique and informed consent was obtained before the start of the study. Inclusion and exclusion criteria of sampling was followed. The data was collected by semi structured knowledge questionnaire to assess the level of knowledge of the primary school teachers in pre-test and post-test. Video assisted teaching programme (VAT) was carried out to impart knowledge among the respondents. The collected data was analysed by descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: The frequency and percentage distribution of the respondents showed that that majority of the samples were females 50 (63.29%), and 53 samples (67.09%) had the qualification of Bachelor of Education. Among the 79 samples 39.24% samples (31) were teaching the grade 1 students. The subjects taught by majority of the samples were other subjects 37 (46.82%). Assessment of pre-test level of knowledge showed that out of 79 samples 60 samples (75.94%) were found having inadequate knowledge and 17 samples (21.51%) were found having poor knowledge and 2 (2.53%) only found having adequate knowledge regarding detection of visual impairment in children. The post test assessment revealed that out of 79 samples 69 samples (87.34%) were found having adequate knowledge and 9 samples (11.39%) were found having inadequate knowledge and 1 (1.26%) only found having poor knowledge. The demographic variables found to have no association with pre-test level of knowledge of the respondents. The obtained “t” value 33.02 is found significant. Hence the video assisted teaching programme (VAT) was found to be effective. Conclusion: visual impairment is the major health problem in the present generation and it has to be identified in the earlier stages in order to manage the condition and to prevent the complications in associated with this in future. The teaching programme was found effective and the teachers must be vigilant in tracking the school children for detecting such problems. Keywords: Assess, effectiveness, Video assisted teaching, Visual impairment, primary school teacher
Publication date: 15/06/2023

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https://doi.org/10.31032/IJBPAS/2023/12.6.1077