Years ago, as a primary school pupil and later, secondary school student, holidays were periods my peers and I looked forward to, especially the long holidays, after which we resumed a new class.
It was, for us, an opportunity to keep school work away and play as much as we could.
Even though my father was so strict he didn’t understand why someone should be playing when they could be plucking brown leaves from the two trees in the compound, sweeping the compound endlessly, filling up water in every crevice in the home when there was supply from the water board or just remain indoors.
Sometimes, he’d ferry my siblings and I to one of his farms and have us assist with little tasks like gathering the harvest and chipping cassava among others.
His strictness was, however, not enough to deter us so whenever he wasn’t at home, we’ll sneak out to play.
As a child, even though I grew up in a city, I hunted grasshoppers, played hide and seek with other children in uncompleted buildings, did police and thief, group jump rope, did ‘suwe’ and ‘ten ten’ amongst others.
It wasn’t just play, those were opportunities to socialise with other children in the neighbourhood, make friends, learn how to form alliances and strategise.
All of that has changed since the two seasons in Nigeria, wet and dry season were modified to create summer in-between.
Unlike abroad where summer is the hottest season of the year, in Nigeria is the period from late July to early September, this is the period schools are usually on long vacation.
Unlike in the past when we’ll just play, play and play, and only remember to touch our holiday assignment a few days before resumption, it appears all children do these days is read.
Any observer would have noticed that once the school session is about to end, schools and groups begin to advertise this summer holiday packages which give students no break from academic work.
This is more common with private schools where parents already pay princely amounts as school fees.
The session ends and students have to continue learning at summer classes their parents are made to pay huge sums of money for. And they do not come cheap.
Just as the children keep waking up early to prepare for summer lessons, parents also have no break as they have to continue to prepare the children for the lessons as they were doing when school was in session.
They still give homework at summer lessons which parents have to assist the younger children to do.
The teachers also do not have any opportunity to relax their brains as they continue teaching even when they should be on holiday and resting.
I see this happen and I ask myself, what time these children have to play or if their parents do not understand that play is an important part of child development.
There have been debates over the years whether the summer lessons are really designed to help the children or just a avenue by proprietors of private schools to exploit parents.
Child psychologists and other experts say playing is a natural and enjoyable way for children to keep active, stay well and be happy.
According to them, play that children freely choose, helps their healthy development and enables them have good physical and mental health and learn life skills they need, which various unstructured play opportunities from birth until they’re teenagers, provide.
Play, they say, improves the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children and young people and through it, children learn about the world and themselves.
They also learn skills they need for study, work and relationships such as confidence; self-esteem; resilience; interaction; social skills; independence; curiosity and coping with challenging situations, among others.
While some parents understand the role of playing in the development of their child, they are constrained as the summer lesson is a way of keeping the students in the care of their teachers, especially in situations where parents do not have reliable nannies to care for them at home while they’re away at work.
While this is understandable, they must realise that it deprives the child of an essential part of growing up.
To strike a balance, parents could consider enrolling their children in places where they can develop other skills apart from continuous academic work.
In doing these, they must bear in mind that all children are different and have different interests and passions. So rather than shipping them off to coding classes for instance, which has become the in thing, they need to find out what each child is passionate about and then find where to enroll them to learn about it.
It could be fashion, crafts making, music, dance, catering or any other activity they are passionate about.
There is no one size fits all approach to these things as every child and their needs differ but taking a break off academic work for a few weeks won’t make a child less intelligent.
