Around 2.8 million students in Vietnam have refraction problems and improper lighting at schools is a major cause, experts said at a Hanoi conference Wednesday.

Doctors attributed the high incidence of weak eyesight to substandard classrooms in terms of size, area and light, as well excessive time spent working with computers.

Trinh Thi Bich Ngoc, deputy director of the Hanoi Eye Hospital, told the conference the hospital has checked 12 schools and found 41.7 percent of the classrooms did not have adequate lighting.

The total across the city was around 18,700 classrooms, according to the Hanoi Department of Education and Training.

Officials at the conference also blamed schools for not having medical officials examine the students’ eyes regularly.

Nguyen Duc Minh of the Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences said most students these days do not have their eyes examined regularly, most schools are not equipped with a vision chart and more than 85 percent of teachers do not teach their students how to protect their eyes.

Studies also showed that 60-80 percent of students with weak eyes in Hanoi, HCMC and Da Nang were not aware of their eyesight problems.

The institute said many weak-sighted students don’t wear optical glasses and around 60 percent wore glasses improperly.

The conference was attended by the ministries of Health, and Education and Training as well as the Vinh Khang Education Co. that produces study equipment that helps avoid short-sightedness.

Reported by Trinh Vinh Ha