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Takalani Sesame- Again and Again and Again
by Fikile Nkambule of Adzone Consultants on behalf of
Takalani Sesame
For the average adult viewer, seeing the repeat of a programme on television is
okay once, boring twice and downright irritating by the third time. As adults,
we see it, we get it, we move on.
Young children have a completely different view. Put yourself in their small
shoes for a moment the reasoning would be something like this: "I see it
and try to understand. I see it again and understand. I see it again and can use
it. I see it again and I can tell my Mom about it. I see it again and I know
more than you!!!" Repeating programming empowers children and entrenches
the learning process.
It is no accident therefore that Takalani Sesame programming has a strong repeat
strategy. As a pioneer broadcast project, Takalani Sesame was commissioned and
produced for South African audiences to support the ECD (Early Childhood
Development) Curriculum of the Department of Education. The programme is tasked
with imparting numeracy, literacy and life skills information to help children
in their everyday life. Broadcasting these vital messages to children just once
is simply not enough.
Yvonne Kgame of SABC Education comments: "This is a worldwide strategy in
educational children's television. 30 years of formative research on Sesame
Street all over the world supports the need to repeat programmes for children,
and the younger the child, the greater the need. Obviously there is a point when
new ideas and storylines need to be introduced, but the basic learning messages
still stay the same."
Research on the Takalani Sesame television series in South Africa has just been
completed after one year of broadcast to ensure that the objectives of the
project are being met, and to identify areas for improvement. The research was
conducted with just over 1100 parents or guardians of young children between the
ages of 3 and 6. Some highlights of the findings include:
· The awareness of the TV programme has reached good levels - on average 81% of
the parent/guardians surveyed knew of Takalani Sesame
· Those who have seen Takalani Sesame characterise the programme as enjoyable,
fun, colourful and entertaining. A favourite local character is Moshe - the
meerkat - who already has a strong following of local fans.
· Results show that the segments of numbers and letters in the programme are
seen as very important and the life skill issues are perceived to be both
educational and are "helping children in everyday life".
Overall, the research concludes that there is simply no other programme like
Takalani Sesame for young children in South Africa. The need to provide local
programming for young children with clear educational objectives, in line with
the ECD curriculum, is obvious when one considers that only 1 in 8 children are
enrolled in any form of pre-school activities or centres in South Africa.
Emile Terblanche of Sanlam echoes this "As the corporate sponsor of this
project, we are extremely focused on ensuring that Takalani Sesame and the
support projects around the programmes are working. Ongoing research is
something we will be repeating again and again to ensure that as many young
children as possible can reap the benefits of basic numeracy, literacy and life
skills education."
Takalani Sesame was launched in July 2000, and is designed to support the ECD
policy of the Department of Education. The name "Takalani" means
"be happy" in TshiVenda and conveys the spirit of happiness and
innocence that pervades the project which consists of multi-lingual television
and radio programmes supported by print resources and training initiatives.
Television programmes are broadcast on SABC 2, Monday to Friday at 10:00 and
again at 15:00 and on Saturday and Sunday mornings at 10:00.
Takalani Sesame is an international co-production with Sesame Workshop,
Kwasukasukela and Vuleka Productions, and has been made possible in South Africa
through funding provided in part by Sanlam, SABC Education, The Department of
Education, and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and
South African Airways (SAA).
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