Affiliations 

  • 1 Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
  • 2 National Defence University of Malaysia
JUMMEC, 2019;22(1):58-65.
MyJurnal

Abstract

Empowering lay screeners, such as pre-school teachers, on vision screening is a cost-effective way to
ensure larger populations of children can be screened. Although the validity of lay screeners in conducting
vision screening were reported in several studies, none showed data concerning improvement of the level
of knowledge among lay screeners after completing vision screening training, which could indicate the
effectiveness of the training program. This study aimed to determine the level of knowledge of pre-school
teachers before and after attending a training program. Sixty pre-school teachers from Tabika and Taska KEMAS
were randomly selected. The Study Group (n = 30) was given theory and practical training on vision screening,
whereas the Control Group (n = 30) was only given brief verbal instructions on how to conduct the screening. A
theory test containing 15 questions related to the training modules were administered to both groups, before
and after their training/briefing respectively. The findings showed that the level of knowledge among preschool
teachers in the Study Group (73.24 ± 11.73%) was significantly higher than the Control Group (56.22
± 13.11%) (p < 0.01). There was also a significant improvement in the level of knowledge among pre-school
teachers in the Study Group after the training (p