Govt looks to non-grads to boost births Measures encouraging people to have kids must reach more than university graduates, says Abdullah Tarmugi By IRENE NG POLICIES to encourage people to have children must be targeted at a broader base of women than university graduates if Singapore is to stop the falling fertility rate, Minister of Community Development and Sports Abdullah Tarmugi said yesterday in Parliament. This comment signals a shift in the Government's thinking on the focus of procreation policies which have so far tended to favour better-educated women. He noted that the proportion of single graduates has remained stable but the proportion of single non-graduates has shot up dramatically. In the 40-44 age group in 1998, 13.8 per cent were singles, up from 9.2 per cent in 1990. "As a group, there are far more non-graduate singles than graduates," he noted during the debate on MCDS' estimates. Even among those who marry, the median age of mothers at the birth of their first child has risen from 27-1/2 years in 1990 to 28-1/2 years in 1998, he said. Yesterday, Mr Abdullah disclosed that an inter-ministry working committee is studying the issue of procreation and marriage in detail. It will delve into the reasons and attitudes holding Singaporeans back from marriage and babies and see how the trends can be reversed. He was responding to several MPs, including Dr S. Vasoo (Tanjong Pagar GRC), Associate Professor Low Seow Chay (Chua Chu Kang) and Dr Wang Kai Yuen (Bukit Timah GRC). All had lamented the birth dearth. The total fertility rate has fallen from the Dragon Year high of 1.96 in 1988 to 1.48 last year. These trends are not new. In 1983, then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew had drawn attention to them, highlighting, in particular, the growing number of single graduate women. A slew of pro-baby incentives, aimed mainly at graduate women, followed but with little result. These included the short-lived "graduate mother scheme" that gave priority in school admission to children of better-educated women and enhanced child reliefs for "specially qualified" mothers. Then came the "big bang" Budget measures from 1987 to 1990, with babies and working mothers taking centrestage. The new slogan was: "Have Three, or More, If You Can Afford It." But the procreation problem remains acute. So far, it has been mainly the better-educated, higher-income earners who stood to benefit the most from the procreation incentives. But, over the years, a gradual, if patchy, shift towards a broader target group could be discerned: in 1987, for example, eligibility for enhanced child reliefs was extended to women with three 0 levels, down from five. Mr Abdullah said that the fewer babies Singaporeans have, the more the country will have to rely on immigrants. "This may have an impact on our social structures and values," he said. With small families and more singles, it will become harder to rely on the family as the primary source of care and support.