Play-making as Creative Learning in Early Childhood Education and its Implication for Nigeria’s Basic Education (UBE) Scheme by Ofonime Inyang, Esther Robert, & Idaresit Inyang

Early Childhood Education is unarguably the foundation of education in any society. Good citizens and the future leaders of the nation cannot be nurtured except where there is a well directed policy of early education. The Nigerian educational policy vis—a—vis the system is replete with a lot of “formality” possibly because of the influence of colonial foundation. With the current search for a dynamic and pragmatic method of instruction especially at the foundation level and the eventual initiation of a policy of Universal Basic Education (UBE) for the teeming population of the Nigerian children, there is a corresponding need to explore the needed avenues for the achievement of a sound early childhood education in the country. This paper orchestrates the need to adopt the instrumentality of innovative play—making as a dramatic medium of educational instruction geared towards all round child development. The paper shall therefore examine the possibility and plausibility of adopting an innovative method of instruction anchored on the principles and practice of Creative Dramatics, especially when considering the challenges of the prevailing educational environment in the country.