Introduction: Vision plays a very important role in child learning and development, thus, any problem with child’s vision could adversely affect his/her academic performance. This study therefore aims at determining the relationship between visual impairment and academic performance among primary school children within Sokoto metropolis. Materials and Method: A descriptive cross sectional survey of primary school children in four randomly selected primary schools within Sokoto metropolis was carried out between July 2016 and August 2016. Relevant history and basic ocular examinations were carried out on the primary school children that were selected using a multi-stage sampling technique. Data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS) version 20. Results: A total of 184 pupils were surveyed; 84 (45.7%) were males and 100 (54.3%) were females. The age range was between 5 and 15 years and the mean age was10.84years ± 2.19. The prevalence of visual impairment was found to be 12.0% and uncorrected refractive error was the commonest cause of visual impairment seen in this study with a prevalence of 10.3% followed by posterior segment affectation which with a prevalence of 1.6%. The average academic performance was found to be significantly higher in the normal sighted pupil compared to those with visual impairment (p=0.04). Conclusion: The negative implications of visual impairment on education and its effects on subsequent socio-economic life, calls for the need to increase effort on visual screening and other related interventional measures.
