U.S. To Bring "Sesame Street" to Indonesia Schools, Rice Says

Program part of $157 million initiative to improve education in Indonesia

The United States is sponsoring a program to bring the U.S. children's television show Sesame Street to schools in Indonesia, according to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"I'm very glad the United States and Indonesia have joined in this partnership for this wonderful school," the secretary said March 14 during a tour of the Makmurian Islamic School in Jakarta.

According to Rice, the $8.5 million program for Sesame Street is part of a six-year, $157 million program President Bush announced in October 2003 to support Indonesia's efforts to improve the quality of education in its schools. (See related article.)

Indonesia is the second stop on the secretary's planned three-nation tour. Rice attended the inauguration of Chilean President Michelle Bachelet March 11 and, following her visit to Indonesia, will travel to Australia to represent the United States in a three-way security dialogue with Australia and Japan. (See related article.)

For additional information, see East Asia and the Pacific.

Following is the State Department transcript of Rice's remarks:

U.S. Department of State
Office of the Spokesman
March 14, 2006

Remarks

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
At Makmurian Islamic School

March 14, 2006
Jakarta, Indonesia

SECRETARY RICE: Well, thank you very much for letting me visit your school. This is wonderful. I love being with the children and watching what education is doing here. The wonderful thing about education is that it opens your mind to all kinds of possibilities. You can learn to read, and when you read different worlds can be your world. You don't just live in Indonesia; you can live in Europe or you can live in Asia or you can live anywhere in the world because you're reading about another part of the world.

And you will decide what you are going to do in life because you'll learn what you're good at and what you're interested in. When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a musician. I liked mathematics in school. I wasn't very good at science and that was a problem because my mother taught science. But at one point of my life, I learned that what I really loved was learning about other cultures and other languages and people far, far away.

And so it's really exciting for me to be here in Indonesia. I'm very glad that the United States and Indonesia have joined in this partnership for this wonderful school. It is a part of an initiative that President Bush announced when he was in Indonesia two years ago. And today we are announcing $8.5 million for a program to bring Sesame Street to the schools of Indonesia.

Now, for almost 40 years, Sesame Street, Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy - Miss Piggy, right - and who? Elmo? Come over here, Elmo. Come on, Elmo. Come on. And Elmo have been teaching children to read and to think and to explore different worlds. And so we're happy that we can bring Sesame Street to these kids and to other kids around the country. And I'll bet you'll find that you'll start creating some other characters, maybe some characters that would live here in Indonesia. So I'll look forward to coming back and to see what you created.

I want to thank the teachers especially. Teaching is a wonderful and noble profession. Both my mother and father were teachers and I have great admiration for what you do. You're so important to society, so important to the future of the world. Thank you for teaching. Thanks for having me here.

Source: U.S. Department of State

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