IT'S PLAY Symposium: Advancing Play-Based Learning in Early Childhood Education

The event began with an inspiring address from Aaron Morris, Senior Programme Specialist at The LEGO Foundation, who emphasised play's transformative role in learning, saying.' Learning through play accelerates children learning, fostering creativity and sharp thinking.' This set the stage for a meaningful dialogue on integrating play into early childhood education systems across diverse contexts. 

This vision was powerfully echoed by Dr. Benson Banda, Director National Science Centre from the Ministry of Education in Zambia in his opening remarks, who highlighted the need for quality early childhood education that nurtures children's holistic development and embraces play as 'the driving force of young children's learning.' He emphasised that scaling play-based learning requires collective effort, strong government commitment, and active engagement from parents, communities, and educators alike.

The first day of the Symposium featured a rich exchange of insights from participants within and beyond Africa, focusing on the essential roles of policy support and teacher capacity building in scaling play-based learning. 

1. Government Partnerships: Susan Place Everhart, of Sabre Education underscored the importance of strong government partnerships to scale Learning through Play (LtP). Despite the challenges, she highlighted that the positive impact on children's resilience, curiosity and love for learning makes the effort invaluable.
2. Teacher Recruitment for Quality Education: Valerie Djioze - Gallet from UNESCO shared a striking statistic: achieving quality pre-primary education for all children by 2030 requires 6 million more teachers globally, including 2 million in Sub-Saharan Africa. Teachers, she emphasised, are critical in implementing Learning through Play and providing equitable education.
3. Systems Readiness from Learning: Mwimbu Ngoma from VVOB in Zambia highlighted seven key characteristics of education systems that facilitate integrating LtP in ECE. These include embedding LtP in policies, curricula, teachers guides and teacher professional development; adequate teacher payrolls, classroom resources and quality standards. Monitoring and evaluation systems ensure implementation and understanding, while school leaders, community and parental engagement foster supportive environments. 

The second day of the symposium delved into strategies for scaling Learning through Play by involving communities and focusing on Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL).

1. Community and Parental Engagement: Rupert Corbishley from the Aga Khan Foundation showcased how community engagement, using simple and accessible play materials enables parents to support playful learning at home effectively. Involving families and communities directly, this approach helps make play-based learning a sustainable, community-centered practice.
2. Monitoring, Evaluation and Advocacy: Speakers from Innovations for Poverty Action, including Pratik Patel, Tamara Billima-Mulenga and Mwamba Kampamba, highlighted the importance of high-quality MEL and advocacy. These are critical for providing reliable data that informs policy, design and implementation, ensuring Learning through Play initiatives are effective and adaptable.
3. Teacher Training Impact: A joint presentation by Dr. Christopher Hand (University of Glasgow) and Dr. Janet Serenje (University of Zambia) shared a mixed-method evaluation of the IT'S PLAY project. Their findings revealed that trained teachers were better equipped to integrate play into lessons, leading to enhanced early literacy and student engagement. This evaluation stressed the importance of continuous assessment and feedback in strengthening teaching practices. 

The IT'S PLAY Regional Symposium emphasised the importance of an evidence-based, collaborative approach in advancing play-based learning. With a collective commitment from educational leaders, teachers, parents and communities, the event concluded with a vision to scale Learning through Play across diverse settings, ensuring that all children can experience the joy and growth that learning through play provides.