Response to the following questions

Social Studies Practice Paper – Pictorial Source Analysis

Q1. Why was this source published? Explain your answer.

Source A A blogger’s view of the government’s attempts to motivate Singaporeans to have more children.

Possible response

Source A was published to alert the Singapore government[Audience] that the current set of population growth policy incentives is not helping in raising the birth rate and instead hindering it.[Message] so that the Singapore government will do change the current policy to include other measures other than monetary incentives. Source A shows a stork carrying a baby which represents birthing being weighed down by incentives that represent the government's attempts to raise the population growth through monetary rewards such as the Baby Bonus Scheme but this has not made it easier for the stork to do its duty of ferrying more babies but it has instead created more problems for the stork as the stork looks distressed by the weight of these incentives.[Evidence] This means that the current government policy is somehow hindering the raising of the birth rate rather than helping to boost it.[Explanation] Hence, when the Singapore government realize this, they may decide to tweak the current population growth incentives and use other methods to motivate Singapore parents to have more children.[Desired Outcome]

Q2. What is the intention of creating this cartoon? Explain your answer.

Source B A cartoonist view of the Baby Bonus Scheme

Possible Response 

The intention of creating this cartoon is to convince Singapore parents that the Singapore government is already doing its best to raise the birth rate by readily providing incentives for married couples when they have children but somehow this has not led to more children being born, so that Singapore parents will play their part and plan to have a larger family/have more children. Source B shows that the government represented by the man is looking disappointed because despite handing out money to the lady who represents married ladies/couples in Singapore, the birth rate has not increased significantly as represented by the doctor who declares " No.Nothing yet." which indicates that the intended policy outcome of raising birth rates has not yet been realised. This means that the government's incentives to Singaporean couples to help married couples who wish to have children but who may be financially strapped, do not appear to be raising the birth rates as hoped and Singaporeans parents do not appear to be doing their part in trying for more children. Thus when the Singaporean parents realise that they need to play their part since the government is already doing theirs, the parents may redouble their efforts to have more children. 

Q3. Why was this poster created?

Source C Poster for population control ( Poster on the left in yellow)

Possible response 
The poster was created to convince parents in Singapore that having too large a family will lead to a less comfortable life so that parents in Singapore will practice family planning and have no more than 2 children. Source C shows a poster with a family of 5 squeezed into a house and looking very uncomfortable. This means that with a larger family(The more you have), the more resources are needed to care for them( The more you need) and in this poster, the family does not have the resources and so they are leading a less comfortable life as represented by being squeezed into the small home. Hence, when Singapore couples see this poster, they will decide to have a smaller family so as to avoid having a less comfortable life.