IN its commitment to expand wider reach in teaching financial literacy to Filipinos, British life-insurer Pru Life Insurance Corp. of the United Kingdom (Pru Life UK) launched during the third Cha-Ching Educators’ Conference on Financial Literacy an enhanced curriculum on financial literacy, which was developed by Prudence Foundation Ltd. together with Junior Achievement (JA) Asia-Pacific Ltd.
JA Asia Pacific is a non-governmental organization dedicated to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in the global economy.
“Through this new Cha-Ching curriculum, we hope to reach as many as possible, helping them to develop responsible money-management habits at an early age,” Prudence Foundation Executive Director Marc Fancy said.
Launched in 2011 in Hong Kong, Cha-Ching first integrated its grade-school curriculum in the Philippines following the signing of a memorandum of agreement with the Department of Education (DepEd).
“We showed the Cha-Ching curriculum to the Department of Education and it’s actually the DepEd that led us into initiating and producing materials. We had a partnership with the DepEd to roll it out to schools,” Pru Life UK Senior Brand Activation and Community Relations Specialist AJ Tapia said.
With the help of education specialist Dr. Alice Wilder, JA members and education organizations, JA Cha-Ching Program was established, which will be implemented in Grade 4 level, which, based on the pilot-test run, is the recommended ideal grade level for administering the curriculum. The Grade 4 level usually encompasses 7 to 10 year olds.
Tapia said the curriculum supports the K to 12 Program in such a way it was designed to be in line with the 21st-century skill being promoted by the program, but not in the way that it is inserted in the K to 12 curriculum.
“We created Cha-Ching in 2011 to address the issue of financial literacy. Financial literacy is a global problem and finance is something that impacts everyone’s life. It [curriculum] is a way of educating a massive audience in a very engaging manner and very simple messages, and you could get the message across,” Fancy said.
The program teaches grade-school students about four key concepts of money management—earn, save, spend and donate. Through homework, lessons on money-smart values can also reach parents of the pupils.
As a teacher and representative of Glimpse Educ.net Foundation, Diana V. Barcoma said, “For me, it is really important kasi early awareness…para ma-educate ’yung mga bata, actually ’di lang din ’yung mga bata, eh, kahit ’yung mga teachers, para maging more credible din sila.”
In a media roundtable, JA Asia-Pacific President Vivian Lau said, “The curriculum is a very structure step-by-step guide helping teachers to focus on interacting with the kids rather than being worried about what to teach. And, at the same time, it really consolidates all the fun, edutainment, values and other lessons they have learned through components of the Cha-Ching program.”
Lau added, “They need to understand not just the principles of earn, save, spend and donate, they need to apply [the key concepts] because the true test of learning is whether you can apply the knowledge into practice.”
Currently, the curriculum, running in seven markets in the world, benefited 100,000 students, 1,400 teachers and 76 schools—47 public schools and 29 private educational institutions. JA Asia Pacific and Pru Life UK are planning to expand their reach to 97 schools in the Philippines.