Volta Regional branch of ‘Right to Play’ Ghana has organised a play event for selected basic schools within the Volta Region to enhance teaching and learning.

The exercise was aimed at enabling pupils to develop and build their various skills and talents for easy learning through play.

Mr Maxwell Denakpor, the Volta Regional Project Director for Right to Play, in an interaction with the Ghana News Agency, said play opened the world for children and helped them to navigate and build the foundations of learning.

‘Eventually, on March 25, this year, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution to create a new International Day of Play with more than 140 countries as co-sponsors which Ghana is also part.’

Mr Denakpor further stated that play among children unlocks their positive potential, heals, builds resilience, instills confidence, and advance gender equity, and should be adopted by all schools for the benefit of the children as well as promote learner-based teaching and learning.

He said glo
bal education experts incessantly stressed the importance of play in making learning engaging, combating learning loss, and helping children overcome trauma and stress since play was considered fundamentally important for 21st-century skills.

The skills, he said, include problem solving, collaboration, creativity, and others.

‘Play relieves stress, unlocks and taps into children’s natural enthusiasm and curiosity to learn. Play is not just for children, evidence indicated that it is critical for adults too.’

Mr Denakpor further urged families to create a safe environment for children and make play a daily priority at home and in school to support play-based learning that would foster creativity and critical thinking.

He appealed to the government to allocate resources to develop and maintain safe play space for children and advocate for better policies to support safe and inclusive play.

Some teachers and pupils of the GNA interacted with expressed optimism about the exercise.

They expressed appreciatio
n to the organisers and sponsors for the projects.

Children and teachers participated in various plays which included chair-dance, climbing the hill, volleyball, table tennis, among others.

Exhibition and display of teaching and learning materials were also showcased during the exercise.

The celebration was on the theme: ‘Toy Library Grow Sustainable Cities and Communities through Play.’

Source: Ghana News Agency