Singapore's declining birth rate

Singapore's birth rate continued to decline in 2009. The Prime Minister blamed it on the economic crisis. But, the birth rate has been falling in good years as well. The various incentives introduced by the Government during the past two decades failed to work.

My "common sense" observations and talking to ordinary people tell me that families are having less children due to the following reasons:

- High cost of living
- Insecurity of jobs
- High cost and burden of educating the child
- No fun for children to take the pressure of childhood

The complicated incentives, to give different benefits to different child according to birth order, year of birth, status of mothers and many other factors did not help.

We should not blame this situation on the modern lifestyle. While the birth rate is falling in other developed countries as well, the situation in Singapore is among the worst in the world. We are seeing the outcome  of our social and economic policies.

To improve the birth rate, I would prefer to implement the following measures:

- Have the cost of raising two children in each family to be borne by the state, and not be a financial burden for the family
- Change the education system to avoid the competition to be top, but to educate our young to be literate, numerate, have social skills and character and to play.

Tan Kin Lian