Developed by Prudence Foundation, Cha-Ching is an award winning financial education programme that provides 360 degree platform to help instill money-smart skills in children aged between 7 – 12 year old. Across Asia, Cha-Ching is available in 10 languages and reaches 34 million households everyday through Cartoon Network Asia.
At its core, Cha-Ching consists of a series of three-minute music videos featuring six lively characters, to help children learn about the fundamental money management concepts of Earn, Save, Spend and Donate. The six characters in the programme are members of the Cha-Ching band, each with a different approach to money management. Cha-Ching music videos feature catchy songs with lyrics and enhanced subtitles that children can sing along to, aiding comprehension and retention. The episodes air on Cartoon Network, the number one children's channel in Asia, in eight markets: Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The programme is built around several elements that respond to children’s learning needs:
Research shows that using this kind of integrated, 360 degree approach to educational content promotes learning.
In 2016, Prudence Foundation partnered with JA Asia Pacific to develop Cha-Ching Curriculum, to provide teachers with structured lesson plan to conduct Cha-Ching sessions in class. The Curriculum adopts activities-based learning approach to instill four key money concepts of Earn, Save, Spend and Donate in students.
The Cha-Ching Curriculum was piloted in 2016 and has been endorsed by the Ministry of Education of the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand respectively. The Curriculum has since been implemented in the public primary schools.
By end of 2018, there will be more than 2,000 schools implementing the Curriculum, with more than 2,500 teachers trained, reaching more than 280,000 students.
For more videos, please visit www.cha-ching.com.
Our website, www.cha-ching.com, features playback of the episodes, online games to enable kids to make money decisions and reinforce learning, and a dedicated section for parents and educators with downloadable activities.
Cha-Ching YouTube playlist also features music videos in 9 dubbed languages, with over 4 million views.
Cha-Ching facebook has approximately 135,000 fans base across Asia.
Cha-Ching has partnered with NGOs and Schools to bring the programme and activities to students and community children across Asia. The School Contact Programme incorporates games and materials to instill Cha-Ching Money Smart concepts in a fun and educational approach. The School Contact Programme also provides a platform for employees to volunteer their time to engage with the communities and children.
To date, more than 400,000 children have benefitted directly from the Cha-Ching School Contact Programme across Asia.
A major research initiative, Financial Literacy in Children, undertaken by Prudential across Asia in 2011 showed that only 13 per cent of parents believe their children possess good money management skills – though almost all parents (95 per cent) think it is important to learn them.
Global studies demonstrate that behavior, including behavior around money habits, are typically formed in early childhood, and to have the greatest impact in shaping behavior the best results are achieved during primary school years.
Cha-Ching Programme was developed for children aged 7-12 year old and was launched in September 2011, featuring a series of three-minute music videos. The programme is now available across 10 markets in Asia.
To ensure the content was meaningful and age-appropriate, we consulted award-winning children's education specialist Dr. Alice Wilder, known for her development of Blue's Clues. With her expertise, the programme adopted the 'edutainment' philosophy that children learn through play, they do what they see, and they learn through practice.
The programme has gained international recognition for promoting effective financial literacy. Cha-Ching was named Education Program of the Year in the Excellence in Financial Literacy Education (EIFLE) Awards in Oriando (April 2012), and honoured as the Best Interstitial Series (Educational) in the Cynopsis: Kids!magination Awards in New York (June 2012). In Asia, Cha-Ching received the Award for the Most Innovative Financial Education Programme by the Institute of Financial Planners Hong Kong (September 2012).