Lagos State and UNICEF have marked a children's rights event built around this year's theme, Protect Play, Protect Childhood. The message came with a clarion call to all parents, guardians and teachers to commit to protecting every child's right to play.
Organisers framed the appeal as a way of letting pupils enjoy their childhood beyond the four corners of their classrooms and homes. The aim, they said, was to ensure that play is treated as part of growing up rather than an optional extra squeezed out by school and routine.
The event underscored the importance of play to a child's total development. Speakers noted that children have to be able to express their emotions, and that allowing them to play helps to encourage creativity, casting play as a building block of learning rather than a distraction from it.
According to officials, Lagos State integrates play into child development, including for children with special needs. That inclusive framing was presented as a deliberate choice to ensure no group of children is left out of the approach being promoted.
The Chief Field Office for UNICEF in Lagos emphasised that no child should be denied the opportunity to play, whether because of overcrowded classrooms, conflict or any other circumstance. Education, the official said, is a right for every child and requires a whole, inclusive and holistic solution involving all partners.
That partnership, the UNICEF representative added, should run from day one with parents through the transition into school and the work of keeping children in school. The Lagos State government and UNICEF both argued that children who are allowed to play learn faster and better.
Alongside the play campaign, the authorities also launched a Unified National Learning Assessment Framework. The framework was presented as part of the same effort to strengthen education in the state, tying the message about play to a more formal tool for measuring how children are learning.