South Africa is a difficult place to be a child. More than a million of our youngest learn without guidance, without early classrooms, without the tools that help a mind take shape. They grow up in homes where learning materials are scarce, where play is pushed aside for survival, and where joy often has to wait its turn.
But Mari Payne, Deputy Managing Director and Senior Director Education and Programs at Sesame Workshop International, South Africa (SWISA) says children cannot wait and play cannot wait. “At Sesame Workshop International South Africa, we have seen one truth again and again: a child’s first teacher is play. Not a textbook or a worksheet. Play is the spark that wakes the mind. It is how children test the world, push against it, and learn its rules.”
International LEGO Day is not about the bricks. It is about what a child can become when given the chance to build something – anything – with their own hands. In a nation divided by wealth and history, play is one of the few tools that treats all children as equals.
Payne adds, “A child does not need fancy toys to learn. A stone, a stick, a bottle top – all of these can turn into towers, houses, cars, dreams. When a child builds, they are not only playing. They are learning how to plan, and how to focus, and how to fail and start again. They learn courage long before anyone names it.”
“We hear stories from teachers and caregivers across the country. Children building taxis from crates and trains from old boxes, or cities from dust and imagination. These moments are small, but they carry the weight of a future not yet written,” she adds.
However, Payne believes too many classrooms are crowded, and the teachers are stretched thin. “Too many schools see play as a distraction, not a foundation. When play is pushed out, the child is pushed out with it: this is why we fight for play.”
“We strongly believe play should be defended; play is not a luxury – it is a right. Our South African children face a future that demands resilience. They will live in a South Africa that changes fast, that tests them, that asks them to solve problems we have not solved ourselves. If we want them ready, we must give them room to dream, to imagine, to build and rebuild what they believe is possible,” Payne says.
This is because construction play, especially, shapes something deep. Payne explains that a child who builds a tower learns how to balance – and any child who builds anything learns to trust their own ideas.
“This responsibility belongs to all of us – parents, leaders, neighbours, policymakers. If we want a stronger country, we must begin where strength is born: in childhood.”
Payne maintains that we need to build spaces where children can:
• Explore with their hands
• Learn through joy
• Fail without fear
• Create without limits
“South Africa’s future will not be forged in boardrooms. It will rise from the mats and floors where our children sit, sorting bricks, stacking boxes, shaping worlds of their own making. If we want a country that stands tall, we must first protect the small hands trying to build it,” concludes Payne.
With International LEGO Day top of mind, let’s encourage our children to learn through play.
About Sesame Workshop International South Africa
Sesame Workshop International South Africa is the impact nonprofit whose mission is to help children everywhere to be stronger, smarter, and kinder. For over 25 years, we have worked at the intersection of education, media, and research, creating joyful experiences that enrich minds and expand hearts, all in the service of empowering each generation to build a better world.
Our beloved characters, iconic shows, direct services, and outreach in communities bring playful early learning to children in the context of all the ecosystem partners (families, parents, ECD Centers, educational institutions etc.) that enable them to be the best they can be. Takalani Sesame, the South African adaptation of Sesame Street launched in 2000 and has impacted millions of young lives to date.
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