We are a group of pupils from PeiCai Secondary School who will like to investigate more about the recent news of low birth rate in Singapore. We are Ng Yu Jie, Samuel Png and Zachary Tan . We have interviewed 7 people ranging from 30-50 years old to find out more about the causes and impact of low birth rate in Singapore. We also asked the people about their views on how Singapore can improve birth rate. The rest of our blog will show how we have done our survey and the findings.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Background Information
Reasons For Low Birth Rate
The people now usually marry late because they usually are career minded or they want to enjoy more freedom life until they reach the age of thirty then they start to find a mate. People now will plan first before they give birth and usually is because of the preference for sons. They will want to have 1-3 children because of the high cost of living and the lack of space. Most of the women prefer to work rather than to give birth and they will tend to give birth and engage a maid and their child will taken care by the maid instead of their parents. Those who are already parents will start to save for their school fees(for those parents that expect their children to study in university or polytechnic in future).
Consequences
-The nation is growing old so there is more burden on the young.
-The growing population is also going to increase the amount of tax collected by the government.
-Singapore is encouraging more foreigners is because they need to rise the talent pool and more people will be serving the nation.
Baby Policy Affecting The People
The government is now giving people more benefits which is because they are going to increase the population growth. One example is that the government is now going to subsidize the school fees for student care and giving students edusave so students can go attend courses that require money.
The people now usually marry late because they usually are career minded or they want to enjoy more freedom life until they reach the age of thirty then they start to find a mate. People now will plan first before they give birth and usually is because of the preference for sons. They will want to have 1-3 children because of the high cost of living and the lack of space. Most of the women prefer to work rather than to give birth and they will tend to give birth and engage a maid and their child will taken care by the maid instead of their parents. Those who are already parents will start to save for their school fees(for those parents that expect their children to study in university or polytechnic in future).
Consequences
-The nation is growing old so there is more burden on the young.
-The growing population is also going to increase the amount of tax collected by the government.
-Singapore is encouraging more foreigners is because they need to rise the talent pool and more people will be serving the nation.
Baby Policy Affecting The People
The government is now giving people more benefits which is because they are going to increase the population growth. One example is that the government is now going to subsidize the school fees for student care and giving students edusave so students can go attend courses that require money.
Methodology
We interviewed a total of 7 people.We did the survey questions together. In pairs, we went around our school during Friday noon and sent some sms to our relatives to ask them. We asked them our survey questions and wrote down their responses.
We asked the following questions:
1.How many children do you want to have? If no, why?
2.Why do you think people in Singapore are not giving birth?
3.Do you agree that the government give more money to make people give birth more? No is don't think so. Why?
4.Why you think that the government is worry about having a low birth rate?
5.Do you agree with the current government's giving birth bonus at this time? If yes,why?
Results & Analysis
Respondent 1
Name: Madam Mok
Gender: Female
Married Status: Married
Number of children: 1
Education level: High
Race: Chinese
Age Married: ???
Q1.How many children do you want to have?
She answered: 3
Q2.Why do you think people in Singapore are not giving birth?
She answered: I think it could be due to the high cost in Singapore. There is not enough space(cannot afford a bigger house).
Q3.Do you agree that the government give more money to make people give birth more? Why?
She answered: No is don't think so. Money is not only the essential point in having more babies, people also require time to bring up children.
Q4.Why you think that the government is worry about having a low birth rate?
She answered:Yes definitely. Singapore have no natural resources.
Q5.Do you agree with the current government's giving birth bonus at this time? Why?
She answered:Yes, the bonus is enough for mothers.
Respondent 2
Name: Madam They
Gender: Female
Married Status: Married
Number of children: 1
Education level: Medium
Race: Chinese
Age Married: 24
Q1.How many children do you want to have?
She answered: 1
Q2.Why do you think people in Singapore are not giving birth?
She answered: Because to support a child is not easy.
Q3.Do you agree that the government give more money to make people give birth more? Why?
She answered: No. It is not easy to educate a child.
Q4.Why you think that the government is worry about having a low birth rate?
She answered: It is because of the dropping of the population.
Q5.Do you agree with the current government's giving birth bonus at this time? Why?
She answered: No. Because the bonus not attractive enough.
Respondent 3
Name: Mdam Tay
Gender: Female
Married Status: Married
Number of children: 2
Education level: High
Race: Chinese
Age Married: 26
Q1.How many children do you want to have?
She answered: 2
Q2.Why do you think people in Singapore are not given birth?
She answered: In my opinion, they think that it is wasting money on resources like milk which is very expensive and they want to decrease the labour.
Q3. Do you agree that the government give more money to make people give birth more? Why?
She answered: Yes. They the parents want to have more babies to increase the birth in Singapore.
Q4.Why you think that the government is worry about having a low birth rate?
She answered: They will think that it will be a waste of resources.
Q5.Do you agree with the current government's giving birth bonus at this time? Why?
She answered: Yes as it is now a critical time.
Respondent 4
Name: Miss Yeo
Gender: Female
Married Status: Single
Number of children: 0
Education level: Medium
Race: Chinese
Age Married: -Nil-
Q1.How many children do you want to have?
She answered: 2
Q2.Why do you think people in Singapore are not giving birth?
She answered: Economic crisis, high standard of living, career minded.
Q3.Do you agree that the government give more money to make people give birth more? Why?
She answered: Yes, to encourage more people to have children to increase population.
Q4.Why you think that the government is worry about having a low birth rate?
She answered: Singapore is a aging population.
Q5.Do you agree with the current government's giving birth bonus at this time? Why?
She answered: Yes, but the baby bonus does not help much in the long run in economic crisis period.
Respondent 5
Name: Madam Cheong
Gender: Female
Married Status: Married
Number of children: 2
Education level: High
Race: Chinese
Age Married: 26
Q1.How many children do you want to have?
She answered: 2
Q2.Why do you think people in Singapore are not giving birth?
She answered: Too stressful.
Q3.Do you agree that the government give more money to make people give birth more? Why?
She answered: No. Monetary awards can only relieve the financial issues related to birth but other factors such as child's development, family environment can't be addressed with government subsidies.
Q4.Why you think that the government is worry about having a low birth rate?
She answered: Of course. Singapore has no natural resources and low birth rate is not able to maintain the economic growth and Spore GDP.
Q5.Do you agree with the current government's giving birth bonus at this time? Why?
She answered: No comment as the birth bonus is not applicable to me.
Respondent 6
Name: Madam Lim
Gender: Female
Married Status: Married
Number of children: 3
Education level: High
Race: Chinese
Age Married: 25
Q1.How many children do you want to have?
She answered: 3
Q2.Why do you think people in Singapore are not giving birth?
She answered: Wasting of money.
Q3.Do you agree that the government give more money to make people give birth more? Why?
She answered: No. Sorry, no idea.
Q4.Why you think that the government is worry about having a low birth rate?
She answered: Yes.
Q5.Do you agree with the current government's giving birth bonus at this time? Why?
She answered: No comment about it.
Respondent 7
Name:Madam Lam
Gender: Female
Married Status: Married
Number of children: 3
Education level: High
Race: Chinese
Age Married: 23
Q1.How many children do you want to have?
She answered: 3
Q2.Why do you think people in Singapore are not giving birth?
She answered: It will need a lot of money to raise their children up.
Q3.Do you agree that the government give more money to make people give birth more? Why?
She answered: Yes, since people are not giving birth due to lack of money, if the government can give them money, why not ?
Q4.Why you think that the government is worry about having a low birth rate?
She answered: Smaller local talent pool, people from other country might dominate Singapore
Q5.Do you agree with the current government's giving birth bonus at this time? Why?
She answered: Yes, since the government want us the have more children, he is using this method as a respond to this situation, this can encourage people in Singapore to give birth more.
Out of the seven people interviewed, six were already married, one was single and was intending to get married. The one who was going to get married was waiting for her boyfriend to come out from the army and wants to have 3 children. All of the people we interviewed all want to have children. Most of them wanted to have 1-3 children. They do not want to have more than 3 children because of the tight income, high cost of living and the lack of space despite the bonus for more children. They also think that the baby bonus are not enough to survive through a financial crisis.
Conclusion & Reflections
In conclusion, we know that Singaporeans want only 1-3 children because of the high cost of living and the lack of space. Most of them agreed that the government should give mothers more money and make their maternity leave longer and not to lose the job. Most of the parents sent their children to student cares because they do not have time to take care of them.
After we completed the whole project, we have learnt that,
-Why is Singapore suffer from low birth rate.
-Why does most Singaporeans want to only have 1-3 children.
-The respondent responses.
-Is the baby bonus sufficient to the mothers?
Reflections
After we completed the whole project, we have learnt that,
-Why is Singapore suffer from low birth rate.
-Why does most Singaporeans want to only have 1-3 children.
-The respondent responses.
-Is the baby bonus sufficient to the mothers?
Reflections
Ng Yu Jie
I am the group leader of this group and I have contributed by giving the information,giving the interviews.I enjoyed staying with the group as think they are funny and quite shy when they were giving the job of interviewing.
Nicholas Tan
I enjoy it very much along with 3 of my other classmates, we have learn a lot from these activity, I hope there will be more of this activity coming up.
Samuel Png
I enjoyed a lot with my friends, I created the blog and make it look appeal-able and thus submitting it. I along with my friends had interviewed some people and have collected some information. I hope to do this again!
Zachary Tan
I enjoyed it very much as we learned a lot during the interviews and how people want the government to help in Singapore's low birth rate.I interviewed my friends and relatives.
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