The Head of the Optometry and Visual Science Department of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KUNST), Dr Kwadwo Owusu Akuffo has called on parents to always check the sights of their children when they begin to have academic challenges in school.
According to the senior lecturer, it is not always that those children are dumbed but rather may be having challenges of even seeing clearly lessons that are taught in class.
Speaking to the Republic Press in Accra last Tuesday when he led 50 student doctors of the Optometry and Visual Science Department at the school to Gokals AniLimited as part of their field trips.
“These trips are practically based where students are exposed to industry players and abreast with the latest technology in the optical lens production at work in Ghana,” he stated.
He said when it comes to eye care, one thing parents must do is always listen to their children who complain about wanting to sit at the back of the class, I am not seeing the board, and many others may be a sign which will only require a simple solution of providing glasses or other eye wears.
“As a department what we are advocating for is a regular eye check and also training young doctors to go out to check and provide vision solution to many Ghanaians,” he stated.
Dr Akuffo said the experience and technology at Gokals makes it one of the finest eye solution centres in the country currently and calls on Ghanaians to fall on them for all the eyewear and timely lens manufacturers.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Gokals AniLimited, Mr Ashish Gokadals, said the vision of the company is to provide vision correction tools to Ghanaians at all levels adding that it is one of “our visions to stay ahead of new technology to produce more protective eye wears to meet the Ghana demand.”
“It is one of the main reasons why the Gokals Retail shop does not charge a customer for checking their vision, it is free,” he stated.
He said the KNUST students’ visit is a knowledge-sharing experience where they were taken through the latest technologies in the system, and the retail shop and had first-hand information about the latest digital free-form lens production laboratory in Ghana.
Mr Gokadals said the Gokals family which was started by Atmaram Gokadals, his grandfather was the first lens producer in Ghana but had to shut down in 2006 due to many reasons.
“But here we are today providing digital free form lenses.” He noted
Some of the 50 contingent students who spoke to the paper about their experience could not hide their joy after having gone through the process of lens manufacturing, the types of lenses and the need to recommend customers to go for the digital free-form lenses.
“I didn’t know there is such a facility in Ghana that can produce lenses within 10 to 15 minutes at a high quality,” one of the students stated.