SINGAPORE'S LOW BIRTH RATE.
Introduction.
Our project is to find out what Singaporeans think about Singapore's low birth rate. We are trying to find out , is it true that Singaporeans are not giving birth, what is stopping them from having more than 1-2 children, what do you think the government can do to encourage people to give birth to more children and also why do you think that the government is so concern about having a low birth rate. We had interviewed a total of 11 people, aged between the 20's to the 70's. The rest of our blog will show you the details and the results that we found.
Methodology.
We had interviewed a total of 11 people, aged between the 20's to the 70's. We conducted the survey in Peicai Secondary School in the staff room and the people were mainly our teachers. We had asked questions like :
- How many children do you have?
- What is stopping you from having more than 1-2 children?
- How many children do you want to have if you are married?
- What makes you want to have children?
- Why do you think the government is so concern about Singapore having a low birth rate?
- What do you think can happen if Singapore continues to have a low birth rate?
- What do you think the government can do to encourage people to give birth to more children?
- Comparing with other countries E.g. In Australia, both parents share 18 months of paid maternity leave. Do you think it is a good idea for Singapore? Why?
Results & Analysis.
Out of the 11 people we interviewed, 6 were already married and 2 were still single but intending to get married, 3 didn't want to get married. The 3 who didn't want to get married said that they were of a certain age and were afraid they couldn't find anyone suitable for them so they are more career-minded.
The 2 who want to get married only want to give birth to 1 or 2 children because they can afford to give birth but they are not sure whether they can afford to bring the child up. They are also worried that they wouldn't have sufficient time to spend with their children and they are worried because children nowadays are beyond parental control and they are scared that it might happen to their children someday so they don't want to give birth to so many children.
The 3 people who didn't want to get married said that if they found their partner earlier, they would be willing to give birth to 4 or 5 children because they wish to be taken care of when they are old, children make homes livelier and also because if anything happens to them, their kids can share the burden.
Out of the 6 who were married, 5 of them aged between the 30's to the 40's have only gave birth to 1 or 2 children because they are worried about the stressful and competitive lifestyle in Singapore. 1 of them aged 70 have 6 sons and said that during the olden days, it wasn't as stressful as compared to the present and she added on by saying that nowadays things are more expensive than the past and she was able to give birth to more children because of the low cost of living in the past.
Some solutions that people suggested was to give fathers maternity leave, government to subsidise the delivery cost and also to stabilise people's job so that they wouldn't lose their jobs easily so that they would be able to afford the cost of bringing a child up.
Conclusion
In conclusion , we found out that actually more couple wanted to have children but not more than 2-3 because of the high cost of living in Singapore and the people who didn't want to have children is because they are worried that they have insufficient time to accompany the children as well as the maternity leave given to the women is too little .
Some problems that we faced are , quite a number of people tend to not answer questions that are quite sensitive. In order to encourage we may have asked leading questions which may have affected their answer.
Francine:
I enjoyed doing this project because it increase my sense of responsibility and I'm now more confident in myself. I interviewed a total of 5 people and all those people I interviewed are very friendly but sometimes they will ask questions that I may not know how to answer and my team mates will try to help me . At first I thought this project is going to be boring but in fact now I think its fun and also feel that team work is very important.
Kuvakoh:
I interviewed a total of 6 people , I also help to write down questions when other people are interviewing , I helped my team mates to answer questions in between the interviews. I help to contribute in writing the blog together with Francine and Charissa. Lastly , I feel that my team mates are encouraging and they are very cooperative.
Charissa:
I interviewed a total of 0 people , But I did help to say some tip points when they are doing blog project. I helped to change the grammar when it is wrong .
Venessa :
I interviewed a total 0 people , But I did help to say some point to the blog to help them . I feel my team mates are encouraging and they will never give up when they are stucked. I also help to give the marks for my class mates blog.
Francine , Kuvakoh , Venessa , Charissa.
