Homework 8: Holiday SBQ assignment in LMS

You will find this assignment in LMS as well.

Instead of the N Level paper, I decided to instead upload the Pei Hwa class test which I had set last year for the Sec 4 batch of pupils.
Here is the paper

Source-based Case Study

Study the sources carefully, and then answer all the questions.You may use any of the sources to help you answer the questions, in addition to those sources which you are told to use. In answering the questions, you should use your knowledge of the topic to help you interpret and evaluate the sources.

1a. Study Source A.
What is the cartoon trying to tell us? Explain your answer. [5]

1b. Study Source B
Why do you think the writer made this statement? [6]

1c. Study Sources B & C.
How different are these 2 sources? [7]

1d. Study Source D
How reliable is source D as evidence to show the success level of Singapore’s efforts to boost its population growth? [7]

Issue: Addressing Singapore’s declining birth rate.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

After 15 years of low population growth, Singapore has finally begun taking steps in the last decade or so to try and solve the problem. Yet many are still unsure whether these solutions would work. One of the steps introduced in April 2001 was the Baby Bonus Scheme. The Baby Bonus Scheme was enhanced in August 2004 and gives support to parents’ decision to have more children by helping to lighten the financial costs of raising children. However, many feel skeptical that such a move will help to increase the Singapore population. Some think that it is the mindset of couples that needs to be changed.

Source A

A cartoon drawn by Straits Times cartoonist MIEL published in the Straits Times in 2004.

Source B
The view of Ms May Tan, a Singaporean mother published on the 15th July 2008 in the Straits Times.

“No official sweetener can sway my husband and I to have more children. Our hands are full running our own Web design company and looking after 2 babies. When I gave birth to my 2nd child, I was online with a client. That was the year the Government handed out its baby bonus, tax reliefs and longer maternity leave. I do not agree that the baby bonus is the reason for parents to have more children. It’s the rat race culture here that is causing low fertility rate in Singapore. If we were living in New Zealand, it's likely that one of us would stay home with the kids, as people there are less focused on career. In Singapore, both parents work to support a lifestyle that includes a car, holidays, and enrichment classes for children.”

Source C
The view of Mrs Jill Tan, who has 5 children, published in The Straits Times 15th July 2008.

“Bringing up five children is not without financial headaches and I need to watch every cent. To save money, we downgraded from a seven-seater multi-purpose vehicle to a smaller Nissan Sunny. The family had to forgo luxuries like long-distance travel in favour of short breaks in Malaysia. The older children have given up their music lessons and other costly enrichment classes. But we chose to look at it positively. Even if the children should be deprived of anything now, they can be compensated in adult life when they start working. The pleasures of seeing them grow up - you can't put a price to that.”

Source D
Dr Paul Cheung, Singapore’s chief family planning statistician, gives his views in a Straits Times article published in September 2008

“Childlessness by choice is a world-wide symptom of most developed countries. What we are doing may be too little and too late. The government's Baby Bonus will not make a decisive difference for better-educated parents. For those with two children, the subsidy works out to $2 per child per day over a six-year period - at the end of which, a parent's duty is by no means done yet. The government is ‘barking up the wrong tree’ by offering money. Only the lower socio-economic group will jump on the breeding band-wagon to get a few more dollars from the baby bonus.”