As one of its three core values, Junior Achievement of the Philippines, Inc. (JA PH) has been a pioneer in teaching the youth about financial literacy with one of its major programs: Cha-Ching. Historically, Cha-Ching was conceptualized by the Prudence Foundation to be a musical cartoon that will teach kids about money related concepts in a fun and interactive way. In order to expand its reach and influence to more youths, Prudence Foundation partnered with JA Asia Pacific and JA PH, and funded by Pru Life UK in the Philippines, in order to create the Cha-Ching we know today.
Cha-Ching is a financial literacy and entrepreneurship program that aims to teach the youths about the four (4) basic money concepts: Earn, Save, Spend and Donate. This program has been integrated in the Values Formation subject of Grade 4 students which gave birth to the Cha-Ching Curriculum and is currently being monitored by our Department of Education partners in their respective divisions. With the intention of cultivating financially-free and financially-savvy individuals, various Cha-Ching activities and initiatives are being organized, throughout the academic year, that will surely form the habit of making healthy and wise financial decision making. In order to fully empower Filipino youths in being financially literate and independent individuals, Cha-Ching aims to enhance children’s money-management skills, through modules which contain economic and social studies, with strong emphasis on finance, mathematics, planning and analytical skills.
In its 6 years of program implementation, Cha-Ching was already able to reach an accumulated number of 646,414 students from all over the Philippines, with around 183,950 of them in just 2022! Presently, Cha-Ching has touched base in areas such as the Bicol Region, Negros Occidental, Muntinlupa, Laoag, Cabanatuan, La Carlota, Cadiz, and Victorias. In spite of this, JA PH has been earnestly connecting with other Department of Educations to reach more Filipino youths!
In 2022, the organizations behind Cha-Ching targets to reach 200, 000 students before the year ends. As such, innovative activities, such as the Cha-Ching Money Adventures and investment modules, have been added to the program’s roster to encourage more financial growth and interaction with Cha-Ching’s beneficiaries. The Cha-Ching Money Adventures is a website where information about the key money concepts: earn, save, spend, and donate is provided and can be accessed by students. This activity will be piloted to 1,000 students, who have access to stable internet, during the academic 2022-2023 in order to test its feasibility and effectiveness. On the other hand, the investment modules are being added to the long-time question of “why is investment not a part of Cha-Ching’s key concepts?”. Investment is one of the core financial concepts that will help individuals to potentially increase their wealth. However, this particular concept comes with certain risks which is why it is important to teach individuals how to properly and safely invest their money.
To further improve the implementation of Cha-Ching on the ground level, JA PH has piloted a Cluster’s committee in Negros Occidental which subdivided the Division into two (2) locations – North, and South. Here, each location created three committees which will be in-charge of Teacher’s Training, Monitoring and Evaluation, and Awards. The goal of these committees is to more attentively implement and supervise the development of Cha-Ching in these three categories.
Furthermore, as a testament to Cha-Ching’s 360 degree learning implementation strategy, Mr. Gilbert Sadsad, the Regional Director of the Department of Education – Bicol Region, has revealed during the Cha-Ching Conference in Singapore that the number of teachers with loans in the Bicol Region has decreased from 90% to 70% since Cha-Ching’s implementation. This may not seem like a huge leap at first glance however this is already one step nearer to Cha-Ching’s goal of financially literate Filipino citizens!
“What I like most about the Cha-Ching curriculum is that we are teaching them the value of sharing or donating something for the less fortunate Filipinos” shared by Ms. Ramelia V. Duyungan, a Cha-Ching Top Educator from Negros Occidental, during a radio guesting.
“I have learned from Cha-Ching to be more thrifty and it changed my life because it helps me to save more money than before. Important concepts were taught to us in regards to money and on how to earn, save, spend wisely and donate.” expressed by a Cha-Ching student from San Enrique Elementary School — Christine Anne Calopez.
In 2022, Cha-Ching teachers, learners, partners and other stakeholders had been fondly referred to as “Cha-Ching Advocates”. They are called advocates for this program because they have, are, and always will be with JA PH and Cha-Ching in promoting and supporting the common advocacy of financial literacy.
As Cha-Ching Advocates, JA PH and our academic partners are committed to reaching more students who will benefit from the program and be future financially smart and independent Filipino citizens!
Do you wish to be part of the change that this program aims to achieve? Be a Cha-Ching Advocate now and join us on our Cha-Ching 2022 Program Launching this upcoming September 2022!
Be part of the Cha-Ching Community, be an advocate for financial literacy, and bring the Cha-Ching Curriculum to your schools and divisions now by sending us an email at coordinator2@japionline.org!