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    Children's educational TV

    Children's educational TV: Preschool through a screen, where there's no preschool at all.

    More than 175 million young children worldwide weren't enrolled in any pre-primary education in UNICEF's last global count. In a randomized trial in Lebanon, a preschool built on Sesame Street's Arabic show and run over families' phones brought large gains.

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    Ryan K. Hertel · heyitskenton

    The problem

    What we're up against.

    • Too many children, no preschool.

      More than 175 million children of preschool age weren't enrolled in pre-primary education, and in low-income countries only one in five were.

    • Hardest in a crisis.

      Of the 19.7 million children in war, disaster or displacement who are a year from starting school, 10.9 million are in no education at all.

    • In America too.

      Only 47% of American three- and four-year-olds were enrolled in school, and 32% in homes where no adult had finished high school.

    What works

    Proven, and ready to grow.

    • Sesame Street changed school paths.

      When Sesame Street began, children in places that could receive it did better at school, especially boys.

    • Around the world.

      Across 24 studies in 15 countries, children who watched Sesame Street's local versions scored an average of 11.6 percentile points higher than those who didn't.

    • Shows that teach reading.

      Across 45 evaluations, public TV's Ready To Learn shows gave children about a month and a half of extra literacy learning.

    • Preschool by phone.

      In a randomized trial with refugee families in Lebanon, a remote preschool using Sesame's Arabic show brought large gains in development, reading and math.

    • Learning from a cartoon.

      In two randomized trials with 263 first graders from low-income communities, the PBS KIDS show Molly of Denali improved how children used informational text.

    What a family could fund

    Where the money goes furthest.

    • Preschool for a few hundred dollars.

      The International Rescue Committee's remote preschool cost $260 a child, and adding a parenting program doubled the cost while shrinking its effects.

    • Cheaper at scale.

      It expects the cost to fall to about $190 a child once it reaches 3,600 children.

    • Far cheaper than a classroom.

      In-person preschool for a refugee child in Lebanon costs about $802, by the same group's estimate, and the remote program was judged a workable alternative where classrooms aren't possible.

    • Done at scale before.

      The MacArthur Foundation awarded $100 million over five years to bring Sesame's work to refugee children, and the show has reached more than 23 million children in the Middle East and North Africa, by Sesame Workshop's count.

    • Others are investing now.

      In 2026, the LEGO Foundation and the International Rescue Committee began a $97 million, five-year effort to help children in crisis learn.

    Honest limits

    What money can't promise.

    • Lasting effects aren't proven.

      Sesame Street's long-run effects on schooling and earnings are too imprecise to be sure of, and early gains from many programs fade, most of all when they start out large.

    • Screens in moderation.

      WHO advises no more than an hour a day of sitting screen time for three- and four-year-olds, and heavy solo use of non-educational media is linked to language delays.

    • Best with a grown-up.

      Media helps most when a caregiver watches and talks with the child.

    • One trial, one place.

      The case for preschool by phone rests mostly on one randomized trial in Lebanon, among families with phones that could get online.

    • Public funding has been cut.

      In America, the federal Ready To Learn grant behind many PBS KIDS shows, $31 million that year, was ended in 2025.

    Hard questions

    Asked and answered.

    1. You might ask

      Isn't screen time bad for kids?

      Ryan

      It depends on what, how much and with whom: heavy solo use of non-educational media is linked to delays, but high-quality educational content is linked to better language and kinder behavior.

    2. You might ask

      Can a TV show really replace preschool?

      Ryan

      No. But where there's no preschool at all, the remote program was a workable alternative.

    3. You might ask

      Doesn't public broadcasting already do this?

      Ryan

      In America it did, with federal money that has since ended, and the children with no preschool at all are mostly in poorer countries, where only one in five young children were enrolled.

    In the slider

    See what your fortune could do here.

    Children's educational TV

    The slider prices this cause with these numbers:

    • A remote preschool built on Sesame Street's Arabic show and run over families' phones cost $260 a child in Lebanon.
    • The whole need is the children in war, disaster or displacement who are a year from starting school and in no education at all, 10.9 million.
    • It rests mostly on one randomized trial, and early gains like these often fade.
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    More of the Blueprint

    Keep reading.

    5 more chapters on the way

    Back to Keep 100

    Sources

    Every number in this chapter, and where it came from.

    1. Source 1: 175 million children are not enrolled in pre-primary education (opens in a new tab)

      UNICEF, 8 April 2019. Checked 16 October 2026.

      UNICEF's most recent worldwide count.

    2. Source 2: Leveraging Caregivers to Provide Remote Early Childhood Education in Hard-to-Access Settings in Lebanon: Impacts From a Randomized Controlled Trial (opens in a new tab)

      NYU Global TIES for Children, 1 May 2024. Checked 16 October 2026.

      A randomized trial with mostly Syrian refugee families, published in the Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness.

    3. Source 3: State of Education for Crisis-Affected Children and Adolescents: Access and Learning Outcomes, Global Estimates 2025 Update (opens in a new tab)

      Education Cannot Wait, January 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.

      The UN's fund for education in emergencies. Pre-primary here is the year before primary school.

    4. Source 4: School Enrollment Rates of Young Children (opens in a new tab)

      National Center for Education Statistics, May 2024. Checked 16 October 2026.

    5. Source 5: Early Childhood Education by Television: Lessons from Sesame Street (Kearney and Levine) (opens in a new tab)

      American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, January 2019. Checked 16 October 2026.

      Compares places that could and couldn't receive the show when it began.

    6. Source 6: UW-Madison analysis shows learning impact of Sesame Street around the world (opens in a new tab)

      University of Wisconsin-Madison, 18 April 2013. Checked 16 October 2026.

      On a meta-analysis by Mares and Pan, commissioned by Sesame Workshop.

    7. Source 7: Getting a Read on Ready To Learn Media: A Meta-analytic Review of Effects on Literacy (Hurwitz) (opens in a new tab)

      Child Development, 19 February 2018. Checked 16 October 2026.

    8. Source 8: The Efficacy of Digital Media Resources in Improving Children's Ability to Use Informational Text: An Evaluation of Molly of Denali from PBS KIDS (Kennedy and others) (opens in a new tab)

      American Educational Research Journal, December 2022. Checked 16 October 2026.

    9. Source 9: Education Cost-Effectiveness Brief: Remote Early Learning Program (opens in a new tab)

      International Rescue Committee, 28 December 2023. Checked 16 October 2026.

      The organization's own analysis of the Lebanon trial.

    10. Source 10: Education Cost-Effectiveness Brief: Remote Early Learning Program (full brief) (opens in a new tab)

      International Rescue Committee, 2022. Checked 16 October 2026.

      A projection.

    11. Source 11: Helping children in crisis learn (opens in a new tab)

      International Rescue Committee. Checked 16 October 2026.

      The organization's own account.

    12. Source 12: Lessons and Impacts of a Remote Early Childhood Education Program in Hard-to-Access Settings in Lebanon (opens in a new tab)

      Sesame Workshop and NYU Global TIES for Children, May 2023. Checked 16 October 2026.

    13. Source 13: Sesame Workshop and International Rescue Committee Awarded $100 Million for Early Childhood Education of Syrian Refugees (opens in a new tab)

      MacArthur Foundation, 20 December 2017. Checked 16 October 2026.

    14. Source 14: Evidence for Investment (opens in a new tab)

      Sesame Workshop, May 2023. Checked 16 October 2026.

      The organization's own count.

    15. Source 15: Fadeout and persistence of intervention impacts on social-emotional and cognitive skills in children and adolescents: A meta-analytic review of randomized controlled trials (Hart and others) (opens in a new tab)

      Psychological Bulletin, October 2024. Checked 16 October 2026.

    16. Source 16: To grow up healthy, children need to sit less and play more (opens in a new tab)

      World Health Organization, 24 April 2019. Checked 16 October 2026.

    17. Source 17: Digital Ecosystems, Children, and Adolescents: Policy Statement (American Academy of Pediatrics) (opens in a new tab)

      Pediatrics, 1 February 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

    18. Source 18: CPB tells stations to stop Ready to Learn work following termination by Department of Education (opens in a new tab)

      Current, 6 May 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.