Press Release

U.S. Secretary of State Rice Visits Madrassah to Announce the Creation of Indonesian Version of Sesame Street

Jakarta | Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Today, during her visit to Ma ‘Muriyah madrassah in Jakarta, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced the creation of the Indonesian version of Sesame Street, the popular educational children’s television program. The new program will be funded through a US$ 8.5 million grant from the U.S. Government through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to the Sesame Workshop.

Secretary Rice, Ambassador B. Lynn Pascoe, and USAID Mission Director William M. Frej were welcomed to Ma ‘Muriyah by Mr. Sidi Muralin Singedekane, owner of the school, and Headmistress Yawairiyah. Speaking to students, teachers and education officials, Secretary Rice said the Indonesian version of Sesame Street will help build a foundation for successful life-long learning for millions of Indonesian children, as it has for children around the world.

The new educational children’s program will be designed and developed through a partnership between USAID, Sesame Workshop, and Indonesian educators and child development experts. The show will feature new Indonesian muppet characters, locally produced live action and animated films, and classic Sesame Street segments featuring Elmo, Big Bird and the rest of the Sesame characters that have delighted children around the world for decades. The grant will fund the first four years of the Indonesian children’s program, which will debut in 2007.

USAID’s Sesame Street Indonesia partnership complements President Bush’s broader $157 million education initiative for Indonesia, designed to improve the quality of basic education throughout the country. While at Ma ‘Muriyah, Secretary Rice visited the classrooms for second and sixth graders who are participating in USAID’s Decentralized Basic Education (DBE) Program. The program introduces more participatory teaching and learning techniques to help increase student’s performance in math, science and reading.

“The USAID basic education program is having a significant impact in the 990 schools that it is currently working in, and it will benefit 9,000 schools over the life of the program,” said William M. Frej, USAID Mission Director.

Ma ‘Muriyah madrassah is an elementary and junior high school in the Cikini neighborhood. Of the madrassah’s 125 students, half come from disadvantaged families. Many live in temporary houses along the river.

For more information, contact Caroline Gredler at (021) 3435 9376 or cgredler@usaid.gov. For more information on USAID activities in Indonesia, visit www.usaid.gov/id.