Dispensing optician Michael Gilsenan calls for study into school vision testing

Northern Ireland’s education committee is to ask for a pilot study on school eye tests for children following the work of dispensing optician Michael Gilsenan from Lee Opticians in Warrenpoint, County Down.

Gilsenan spoke to the education committee about his work in 2011, at a Newry primary school where he tested a class of 27 girls and found that 16 had never had an eye test and 13 needed spectacles or other help. ‘I have been working on this for a long time and got a chance to speak at a plenary session, with representatives of all the political parties who have recommended a pilot study to the education board,’ he told Optician.