Summary of Key Points
Singapore has recently introduced a series of substantial policies aimed at encouraging childbirth, such as childcare subsidies, halving childcare fees, extending parental leave, and offering housing incentives. These measures seek to fundamentally reduce the costs associated with raising children. However, the article points out that these policies do not address the underlying pressure affecting birth rates—the pressure of education: children are reluctant to have more children due to the hardships associated with schoolwork, and parents are deterred from having more due to the high costs of tutoring and anxiety. To truly solve the birth rate issue, educational reforms must be advanced in conjunction with fertility policies.
1. The New Policy Package is Indeed Substantial
This round of policies in Singapore is more than just minor adjustments; they involve substantial financial support directly targeting the initial stages of child-rearing:
- Direct financial assistance: Each child will receive a subsidy of nearly S$70,000.
- Cost reduction: Childcare fees have been halved, reducing daily expenses.
- Time flexibility: Families with three children will have 24 days of parental leave per year to spend time with their children.
- Housing support: Increased opportunities for housing lotteries to address the need for affordable housing.
Prime Minister Huang describes this as a “fundamental change in how we support families,” which addresses many practical needs (such as childcare and housing) and deserves recognition.
2. The Hidden Barrier: Children Are Unwilling to Have Children Due to the Hardships of Raising Them
The biggest issue that the policies fail to address is the pressure of education, which makes children fear having children:
- Primary school students say they definitely don’t want children when they grow up, citing the hardships of parenting and the pressure of studying.
- Real-life examples include students who fear being scolded by their mothers after poor exam results, rushing to three English tutoring classes on weekends, eating meals in the car during breaks, and spending entire holidays on practice exams. Some students are so exhausted during exams that they fall asleep and fail to complete their essays.
- Although these children do not lack basic necessities, they feel that childhood is not what it used to be and therefore do not want their offspring to go through the same hardships.
3. Parents Cannot Stop: Rising Tutoring Fees and Unrelieved Anxiety
The pressure of education affects parents as well:
- Increasing expenses: Annual tutoring costs for families have risen from S$1.1 billion ten years ago to S$1.8 billion, with monthly tutoring fees for fifth and sixth graders being common.
- Exhausting demands: Parents are responsible for picking up and dropping off children, supervising homework, and finding educational resources; some even quit their jobs to tutor their children.
- Unrelieved anxiety: Government subsidies may be offset by increased tuition fees at tutoring centers, leaving parents worried about falling behind. This sense of constant pressure is even more burdensome than financial burdens and can affect relationships within families.
4. To Truly Encourage Childbirth, Educational Reforms Are Needed
The article proposes three key recommendations to align fertility policies with educational reforms:
1. Include the pressure of education in the discussion on fertility: Study the time and financial costs associated with extracurricular education and address the effectiveness of in-school learning (e.g., using AI to enhance home-school cooperation and reduce unnecessary tutoring).
2. Accelerate educational reforms: Implement financial policies by 2027, and move forward with exam reforms as soon as possible, as children’s childhoods cannot wait.
3. Increase transparency in education: Make exam standards and grading rules public to reduce the “arms race” caused by information asymmetry (e.g., when exam questions differ from those practiced in schools, parents may feel compelled to enroll their children in additional tutoring).
The author concludes that the best policy to encourage childbirth is one that allows children to experience a normal childhood and parents to live their lives without the burden of excessive tutoring.
The core message of this article is that while financial support can address the question of whether people can afford to have children, it is the pressure of education that affects their willingness to do so. Only by reducing the hardships for children and alleviating parents’ anxiety can birth rates truly increase.