Playcentre promotion

Press, 12 May 1984, Page 6

Playcentre promotion

New Zealand Playcentre Federation branches will soon be asked to "adopt a playcentre” in Tonga. The director of training at the North Shore branch, Mrs Gill Stringer, said yesterday that the scheme was at present being set up. Mrs Stringer is in Christchurch for the federation’s conference at Lincoln College. She has been involved in the playcentre movement in Tonga for about three years. The islands’ association is affiliated to the North Shore branch, which fostered the movement in Tonga in the 19505. The Tongan playcentres were not officially recognised by the Education Department there, she said. This was due to the department’s lack of funds, and there was little equipment and money available to the Tongan centres, she said. Mrs Stringer visited Tonga in 1981, and will return there for one month in July. In New Zealand, she is responsible for marking and commenting on papers sat by playcentre teachers in Tonga. While in the islands, she will set up workshops, visit some of the 60-odd centres there, and offer ideas and expertise. The pre-school centres in Tonga were much more structured than in New Zealand, she said. While New Zealand playcentres were run purely around a “play” situation with the children,

in Tonga there were three separate parts to the programme. As religion was such a strong factor in Tongan education, part of the playcentre’s day was focused on a “Sunday School” situation, she said. There was also a section devoted to health, which was important for the Tongan children, she said. The rest of the day was in a similar type of “play” situation as in New Zealand. One thing she was finding difficult was to convince the people who ran the centres in Tonga that Western society equipment was not the best for playcentres in the islands. “A lot of our equipment is entirely unsuitable for children over there. For ex3‘;, children’s picture with illustrations of elephants and other animals. There is no way that children can see those things, whereas in New Zealand they can be taken to a zoo,” she said. Mrs Stringer said that she was collecting old picture books from around New Zealand to send to Tonga. The pictures could be cut out and appropriate stories in Tongan could be written below them. Equipment made from natural products, such as coconut shells, was ideal for Tongan playcentres, said Mrs Stringer. “We have been trying to convince playcentres in New Zealand to use natural resources for equipment as well,” she said.