Takalani Sesame Street, which launched its fourth season on SABC in August, will soon be screened in almost all of South Africa’s official languages.
The producers of Takalani Sesame have introduced an “applied language’ approach to the series. The approach calls for each Takalani Sesame episode to be produced in several official South African languages which is in accordance with the broadcaster’s government mandate.
SABC 1 and 2 will dedicate a specific day of the week to a single language. The current season, on air until November 9, includes seTswana (Tuesdays), tshiVenda (Wednesdays), isiZulu (Thursdays), sePedi (Fridays) and English on Mondays on SABC 1 and Saturdays on SABC 2. The fifth season, airing early 2008, will see a new choice of languages including isiXhosa, xiTsonga, seSotho, Afrikaans and a continuation of English.
The new season of 130 24-minute episodes covers educational objectives across the domains of literacy, numeracy and life-skills. The educational objectives are informed by the National ECD Curriculum.
A new season of Takalani Sesame on radio, consisting of 150 seven-minute shows, is also underway. Produced in 12 South African languages, the series will continue to feature all the Takalani Sesame Muppets.
Takalani Sesame was made possible through a partnership with the Department of Education, the United States Agency for International Development, Sanlam and SABC Education.
