More children getting nearsighted, obese

Nearly 70 percent of eighth grade students in China had poor eyesight last year despite government efforts to combat nearsightedness, or myopia, a new report showed.

The report on the health of the country's primary and middle school students, released by the Ministry of Education on Wednesday, found that 68.8 percent of eighth graders had poor eyesight last year, up 3.5 percentage points from 2015.

The rate among fourth graders was 38.5 percent, up 2 percentage points from 2015.