Unified national standard sought for professional opticians

Experts attending a seminar in Beijing on Monday called for professionalization of opticians in China to promote better services to an increasing number of people in need of eyeglasses in the country. 

About 190,000 people work as opticians in China, most of them in various glasses stores, but many of them lack enough qualifications and provide services of varying standards, said Qi Bei, vice-president of the China Optometric and Optical Associations. 

"We hope that a unified national standard is present for the certification and evaluation of opticians," he said at a seminar on professionalizing opticians. "The evaluation will cover opticians' duties, including customer reception, guiding, advising, choosing the right glasses for customers, helping them to use glasses, and inspection and repair of glasses."

More than 90 percent of people with myopia in China wear glasses bought with guidance from opticians in glasses stores, but opticians are not considered an independent profession in China, with standards lacking for certification and grading them, according to the Optician Promotion Committee, established by the association and the Essilor Vision Foundation China, a nongovernmental organization based in Shanghai that promotes vision health. 

This could cause health risks for the vast number of people with eyesight problems, including myopia, as they may not end up with the right glasses, the committee said. 

He Yi, a council member at the foundation, said lack of professional benchmarks has also caused a serious talent drain among opticians over the past two decades in China. 

Professionalizing the job can encourage opticians to pursue excellence in their careers, which contributes to the development of the whole industry, he said. 

The nearsightedness rate in China is among the highest in the world. More than 65 percent of all eighth-grade students in China have myopia, according to a report released by the Ministry of Education last year. Some experts estimate more than 80 percent of high school students in China wear glasses.