Read the text to answer.

Can a focus on playful learning be integrated in the

enabling environment?

“Enabling environment” refers to the broad set of interrelated national political, social and financial conditions that can either promote or hinder the successful functioning of the preprimary sub-sector. A supportive enabling environment is conducive to recognizing the importance of learning through play, and it can further strengthen this emphasis by fostering coordination with other sectors such as health, nutrition and social protection, which together can create a unified voice for play in children’s lives. The elements of the enabling environment, and how they can foster play-based learning, are:

1. Policies and legislation: Policies specific to the preprimary sub-sector are important because they can clearly affirm children’s right to play and can state that playbased learning is a distinctive and essential feature of effective early learning. Policies and directives can reflect a childcentred approach to learning and teaching; such policies create an expectation that playful learning will be taken seriously and implemented across levels of the sub-sector.

2. Public Demand: Support for pre-primary services among parents and caregivers is key and it should be informed by strong awareness of what quality means in pre-primary education. Awareness-raising should focus on young children’s unique learning needs, e.g., the need to make meaning through playful investigations supported by knowledgeable teachers. A key aspect of fostering public support and demand for learning through play is to ensure that parents recognize their role in providing meaningful play experiences in the home environment, and to empower them to do so. Garnering public support and demand for learning through play will enhance the pre-primary system’s commitment to and recognition of the benefits of play.

(Available in: https://www.unicef.org.)