Iftah Ya Simsim
Iftah Ya Simsim (; meaning "Open Sesame") is the first international co-production of the American children's television series "Sesame Street" created in the Arab world. It premiered in Kuwait on September 14, 1979 and was broadcast in 22 Arabic-speaking countries, running until April 6, 1990. The program continued to be well-known decades after it went off the air. In 1978, educators, mass media officers, and social planners agreed to adopt "Sesame Street" as a feasible and economical solution for the low attendance in preschools and illiteracy that plagued the region. They approached the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), the producers of the American show, and purchased the rights to create an Arab version for US$2.5 million.
Iftah Ya Simsim
According to researcher Ibrahim Al-Khulaifi, there were three stages in the production of the show. The first stage was pre-production research, which identified basic education needs for children under the age of six. The second stage involved the creation of a pilot reel to test children on the show's effects and for review by educators, sociologists, psychologists, and other experts, who were invited to a seminar. Finally, the series was filmed and aired. Research began in August 1977; the team was led by an educator and included a linguist and a psychologist, all of whom were on the faculty of Kuwait University. The show was tested on different socioeconomic groups of children, between the ages of three and six, in kindergartens and preschools in four representative cities from Arab countries. The team proposed curriculum goals based upon the research and, during a seminar, Arab and CTW educators agreed on ten final goals.