By Victor Ojelabi

The Rotary Club of Ikoyi Metro, led by President Rotarian Emeka Nwosu, will begin a four-day vision and hearing screening for Primary One pupils across 10 public primary schools in Lagos Island, Lagos State, on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, under a Rotary International Global Grant project chaired by Rotarian Oladimeji Olatunji-Audu for the club.

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The Rotary Ikoyi Metro screening, which runs until Friday, September 25, will commence at 9 a.m. daily, with Holy Cross Cathedral Primary School, Campus, serving as the venue.

The Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board has formally approved the exercise for pupils in the 10 selected schools within the Lagos Island Local Government Education Authority.

In its September 9 approval, LASUBEB described the intervention as a “noble gesture” complementing the Lagos State Government’s efforts to improve basic education.

The participating schools are Holy Cross Cathedral Primary School, Ade Oshodi Primary School, Anglican Girls Primary School, Christ Cathedral Primary School, and Ebute Elefun Primary School.

Others include Edward Blyden Memorial School, St. David Primary School, St. Mary Convent School, St. Peter Primary School and Tinubu Methodist Primary School.

Nwosu said the intervention was built around a simple concern: children experiencing difficulties in the classroom should not be written off before possible health-related causes are investigated.

“Sometimes, what looks like a learning problem may simply be a child struggling to see the board clearly or hear what the teacher is saying. Through this project, we want to identify those challenges early and give affected children the opportunity to learn and thrive alongside their peers,” Nwosu said.

The project is being implemented in partnership with other Rotary clubs through the Rotary International Global Grant mechanism, combining resources and expertise to address preventable vision and hearing difficulties among schoolchildren.

The cub’s project chairman said the initiative was designed to go beyond simply identifying pupils with difficulties.

“Screening is only meaningful when it leads to action. Our objective is to identify children who require attention early enough and ensure that those who need further intervention are appropriately supported. A child’s ability to see and hear properly can make a remarkable difference to the child’s confidence and performance in school,” Olatunji-Audu said.

The Lagos Island exercise follows an earlier phase of the wider Global Grant project launched in July 2026, when hundreds of pupils from public primary schools in the Ikoyi-Obalende area underwent vision and hearing screening.

The broader intervention has brought together Rotary clubs and partners in Nigeria and overseas.

The World Health Organization has also identified vision and hearing as important to children’s development and education, noting that unaddressed sensory impairments can have significant consequences for school-age children.

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For Ikoyi Metro, the four-day intervention therefore carries a powerful message beyond the medical screenings: before concluding that a young pupil is struggling to learn, it may be necessary to establish whether that child can clearly see the lesson and hear the teacher.