Kuni Tyessi writes that play, also formally known as morning circle in the early childhood education sphere, has been grossly underestimated in the Nigerian setting. Nonetheless, with documented research and empirical evidence, records have proven that play is a natural power that equips a child for better attentiveness, understanding and assimilation, among several benefits
The children between the ages of three-five were all seated on mats spread on the sand outside their classes, under trees that provided shades from the compulsory Vitamin D that normally surfaced in the early hours of the day.
This was after holding their hands alongside their teachers in a cyclical style and jumping while joyfully singing the songs being taught them by the caregivers who are primarily their first teachers, after parents who have been active partners in the children’s learning and development, a shared vision in the role of play in pre-primary programmes.
The teachers who had been trained by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and in collaboration with the European Union and the Sokoto State government had been taught that early brain stimulation is the foundation of learning. This is not without nutrition which medical experts identified as core to a child’s holistic growth.
Being equipped with such knowledge, they realised the importance of the morning circle and adopted it as a germane method in introducing lessons to be taught in class to the early learners through the power of play.
In furtherance to its crusade on ECE, UNICEF, at a two-day media dialogue in Sokoto, had spoken through the country director of Early Childhood Development Initiative, Nigeria, Dr Amy Panyi. She explained the play’s importance for ECE and mentioned the five benefits of the underrated performance: critical thinking, innovation, executive function, all-round development and hands-on.
Plays have been exclusively adopted into several schools as an ECE curriculum with the help of breakfast which is sometimes served to the pupils in a school to increase enrollment and participation. However, this hasn’t been sustainable as supplies have been epileptic in Sokoto.
Globally speaking, UNICEF has revealed that less than one in three children aged three and four attend ECE. In Nigeria, over one in three children (36 per cent) attend, with at least 10 million children not enrolled. This is not forgetting that large inequalities persist, with only eight per cent of the poorest children versus 78 per cent of the richest children attending ECE. Although they were taught in the combination of English and Hausa languages at the Magaji Abdullahi Nursery School in the Shagari Local Government Area of the state, the children were enthusiastic about learning courtesy of the setting and mode of teaching, particularly its introduction.
The early learners, when spoken to, could identify the names, objects, usefulness or otherwise of things shown to them in the subjects under focus, namely Mathematics, English, Hausa, Physical Health Education and Arabic. This is proof that there has been an improvement in the quality of education, an increase in school participation and graduation rates, and stronger economic and social development.
Furthermore, strengthening families understanding of the value of play in pre-primary settings and at home, as well as engaging families and communities in supporting a play-based approach to learning, does not only protect a child’s ability to play safely but the ability to understand and to interpret.
