Incubatee - Noeline Nswali, Outdoor Play | OUTDOOR PLAYFUL LEARNING FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD IN URBAN AREAS

I am concerned and perturbed by the current trend whereby there is less outdoor play among children in urban areas.

My sons were so interested in football and I bought them a ball.  One day as they were playing, they broke a neighbour’s window glass.  Hence forth I stopped them from playing football and they resorted to playing cards and watching TV.  Such state of affairs kept me perplexed.

Uganda Population 2017 (Live Statistics for Population of Uganda) shows that 49.9 percentage of population is under 15 years of age.  Then Uganda Vision 2040, one of the identified key core projects to be started is:  Five regional cities (Gulu, Mbale, Kampala, Mbarara and Arua) and five strategic cities (Hoima, Nakasongola, Fortportal, Moroto and Jinja) – this means that much of Uganda’s population will be urban dwellers.

A child is defined in the UN Convention as a person under the age of 18 years. 

Article 31 of the UN Convention (Leisure, Recreation and Cultural Activities) contains five distinct rights:  the right to rest; the right to leisure; the right to play; the right to engage in recreational activities; and the right to participation in cultural life and the arts.  These are essential human rights that can enable every child to fully develop his or her potential skills, abilities and personality.

Why Play?

Of the five rights in Article 31, the right to play is the least funded and the most neglected by adults.  It is often viewed by adults as a luxury rather than a necessity, as disruptive rather than creative.  However, play, traditionally viewed by most adults as purposeless and without merit, is now known to have a crucial role in the development of children.  Play performs an essential role in a child’s health and discovery of their sense of self.  As put simply by Professor Sergio that, the brain not only shapes play – play also shapes the brain.  There are also serious neurological dangers associated with a persistent absence of play.  It is important to recognize that play is distinct from recreation.  In fact, an over-emphasis on recreation can hinder the right to play.  Free play is threatened when the demands of time force working parents to choose structured recreational activities for their children.  This problem is a growing phenomenon in Uganda (especially in urban areas), as it is in many countries.

In their article, Brenna Hassinger-Das state that; Monkeys play.  Dogs play.  Rats play.  Even octopuses play.  And without any instruction, children of all races and genders, in all cultures of the world, invent and reinvent play in every generation.  In particular, free play and guided play – together known as playful learning – are pedagogical tools through which children can learn in joyful and conceptually rich ways.  Similarly, Deanna Pecaski McLennan made this observation that; young children strive to understand the world around them.  Outdoors, they can spend hours engaged in rich, imaginative play using nothing more than the natural materials they find.  How many times have you emptied treasures from the pockets of a preschooler?  What do you find?  Pebbles, pinecones, feathers and leaves; they are wondrous and hold so much potential for math and science inquiry!

How is the situation like in urban areas in our country? 

The population therein consists of the poor and underprivileged in slums plus the well-to-do with bungalows and flats.  Because of the social classes, the rich don’t want their children to mix with the poor children, fronting the lame reasons that their children will learn bad manners.  For that reason, there is no play between those children.  Formerly, there used to be some free space in towns where children could play, now such space has been replaced by the many mushrooming shopping malls, parking yards, washing bays you name it.  And the scanty ones that still exist, when the children go to play, the adults chase them that they are making a lot of noise.  A few schools in towns that have playgrounds, they demand lots of money from those schools that don’t have their own playgrounds before allowing them to use them.

The importance of play has been overemphasized and because children in urban areas lack it, they get alternatives (majorly negative) the young ones of rich parents are confined indoors with the TVs and housemaids.  Then for the poor in slums, some end up in kiosks (ebibanda) with Video Shows/blue movies.  The grown up children, because of lack of positive play/activities, they end up indulging in gambling, drug abuse, undirected sex involvement, STDs, early pregnancies, school drop-out etc. which results into ruining their lives.

Having recognized the importance of playing among, children, I am compelled to advocate for a project of a Social Centre with both a traditional playground and a Natural Playground in the Municipalities.  The natural playground (I believe) is going to be a new development.  It is going to be a natural environment (with trees, flowers, sand pit, waterfalls etc.) but with a play area for young children to have free play.  I see this as their garden (EDEN), their piece of the earth.  This is their corner of the world - a place for recreation, creativity and learning.  This is theirs to take care of.  So they will spend time learning about caring for living things and taught how to protect them [Conserving the Environment].  They are going to learn what it takes to help grass survive.  Allow them figure out why grass looks brown, or why it gets green again when the rains come.  They are going to discover that weeds are welcome, that dirt stores food for plants and how flowers drink water etc.   That’s what makes Natural Playgrounds fun!  That’s what makes them unique.  That’s what gives them character, depth, intrigue and challenge.  And that’s what makes them worth maintaining.  Having appreciated nature, the grown up children can then join the traditional playgrounds for stronger physical exercises, for example, football, netball, basketball etc. which are healthy for their growing bodies.

I am calling upon you fellow parents and willing citizens to join hands to accomplish this mandate.

Let us champion it from the grassroots by sensitizing homes, schools, communities, local authorities, churches, government bodies and all willing organizations, the importance of play amongst children.  For, with healthy children we can have a healthy nation. 

IF IT IS TO BE,          IT IS UP TO ME AND YOU.