Basic Education: Sesame Street Returns to Brazil

It is no secret that national investment in early education is a key component of Brazil’s plans for the future. This past April, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva launched the Plano de Desenvolvimento da Educação (PDE), renewing Brazil’s commitment to basic education. Although programs that link financial aid to school attendance—including Bolsa Familia and its predecessor Bolsa Escola—have helped to place Brazil at the forefront of educational policy, Lula describes this new plan as “the most revolutionary to ever be launched in Brazil.” 

This recent political investment in Brazil’s youngest citizens has drawn attention to the significance of early education as a cornerstone of national development. With over 18 million children under five-years-old, Brazil faces a continual challenge of extending formal pre-primary education. Despite efforts to stimulate school attendance, limited access remains a concern. Even more, a stark educational gap persists between the wealthiest children—who often benefit from informal education at home to complement school studies—and those from less advantaged backgrounds.  

However, children from all socio-economic classes can generally take advantage of one educational tool: television programming. Nationwide, 91 percent of all Brazilian households have a television. In this context, the friendly faces of Muppets from Vila Sésamo, the Brazilian version of Sesame Street, are in a unique position to creatively enrich children’s education. On October 29, Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization that created Sesame Street, and TV Cultura, a leading Brazilian broadcaster of educational and cultural programming, will jointly re-launch Vila Sésamo. The program is part of a larger effort where the public and private sectors can work together to offer new educational opportunities to all Brazilian children. 

Sesame Street was born in New York City in the 1960s during an era of race riots, political assassinations, and a newly launched “War on Poverty.” With rising attention to the educational gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots,” documentary producer Joan Ganz Cooney and her colleague, Lloyd Morrisett, a foundation executive, asked: What if we presented important, relevant, age-appropriate information to children in the same way advertising jingles are presented to them? What if we used the power of television to work as an aid in the struggle to improve basic pre-school skills? They assembled a team of writers, producers and educators, and created a show that addressed basic cognitive skills and educational goals in an engaging way. Over 35 years of research demonstrates that the method works, according to the book “G” is for Growing by Shalom Fisch and Rosemarie Truglio.   

The creators never dreamed their experiment would be of interest to producers and educators around the world. Shortly after the show launched, Sesame Workshop was approached by broadcasters in a number of countries, including Brazil, to discuss creating their own versions of Sesame Street. In each country, using the same formative research model that was used to create Sesame Street, local educators, producers, puppeteers, actors, writers, and musicians collaborated to craft national shows. In Brazil, TV Cultura and Globo partnered with Sesame Workshop to produce Vila Sésamo, which featured a young Sonia Braga and aired 260 episodes from 1972 until 1978.  Today, the show is still remembered with nostalgia and saudades. 

The Sesame format has proven to be quite malleable. A key component of the Sesame Workshop model is that educational topics covered by international co-productions are driven by input and guidance from local educators and experts in child development. In the United States., the show has focused on a range of locally relevant topics such as marriage, childbirth, adoption, single parenthood, death of a loved one, parental deployment in the military, healthy eating, sleeping, and exercise habits. Internationally, topics have included respect and understanding in Israel and the Palestinian territories; destigmatization of HIV-positive children in South Africa; girls’ education in Egypt; and literacy, nutrition, and health in Mexico. 

The research and production model established for Sesame Street works globally. In Bangladesh, children who had some exposure to Sisimpur exhibited literacy skills equivalent to peers one year older with no exposure, according to Associates for Community and Population Research. In South Africa, Khulisa Management Services found that awareness of HIV and AIDS increased from 25 to 80 percent among children who viewed Takalani Sesame. Both SEP and UNICEF found that children in Mexico who watched Plaza Sésamo exhibited improved letter recognition and fundamental skills. When local educational issues are at the center of the show, children respond.

This month, Brazil’s parents and caregivers are preparing for the return of Vila Sésamo’s famous feathered protagonist, Garibaldo. After nearly 30 years, preschoolers will be introduced to a new version of the show their parents loved as children. The series, to air on terrestrial channel TV Cultura, will be presented in one hour programs that address key issues in contemporary Brazil: literacy, math skills, the environment, and cultural diversity.  

Children will be exposed to important life skills such as counting to 10, recognizing how letters can be used to spell words, understanding the importance of recycling materials, and appreciating the country’s different cultural traditions. Vila Sésamo aims to bring learning alive for Brazilian children and help to improve basic education.   

Brazilians are fond of observing, with a twinkle in their eyes, that “Brazil is the country of the future… and always will be.” The recent launch of the PDE sets the stage for creative public and private sector approaches to improve literacy and basic skills. Vila Sésamo is one such initiative with a proven track record, both in Brazil and around the world. Perhaps the future is almost here.   

Daniel Victor is Executive Vice President of International Projects at Sesame Workshop.