A team of 11 officers from the National Statistical Office (NSO) Head Quarters are currently at Lae as Trainers, Supervisors and Monitors along with the Census Director Mrs. Hajily Kele for the Pilot Census Enumeration Training. The trainers with their supervisors and monitors will be at Morobe for a period of 8 days of training and the two weeks of enumeration in Morobe both rural and urban.
The training started on Monday 09th October and will end on the following Monday 16th of October 2023. This training was officiated by Mrs. Kele, the Census Director with the presence of Lae Provincial Administrator (PA) Mr. Bruten whom later in his welcome speech, welcomed the NSO officers and praised the trainees (participants) for successfully meeting the selection requirements to take part in the training. PA then, encouraged the trainees to take the training seriously as data collection is vital as it helps government decide how to distribute funds and assistance to states and localities.
About 23 of the successful trainees are participating in this course of training. These trainees are expected to grasp as much information as they can in these 8 days of training, show commitment and dedication, and through various tests and exercises, must display well-perceived knowledge and concepts taught during the training for assurance in quality data collection. The trainees that stand out among the rest will be rewarded with the supervisor or trainer positions to further assist when required in the similar trainings for the main census enumeration.
This training is very critical as it will determine the quality and timeliness of data collection during the enumeration period. The success of the census exercise depends on the interviewer as well as the trainers on how they convey simple instructions or the key information to their trainees. What must a trainee (now) who will then become an interviewer in the enumeration phase do before, during and after interviewing households? All the required information will be covered in the course of this training.
Mss. Lydia Messa and Mr. Rodney Toruworu are the facilitators in these 8 days of training and will be navigating the trainees through the three training manuals listed below;
- Census Interviewer’s Manual,
- Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) Enumeration Manual and
- Supervisor’s Manual.
In the Census Interviewer’s Manual, Mss. Messa guides the trainees through essential chapters that covers the general information about census, use of census data, terms and definitions, interviewer’s job before and after an interview, The census questionnaires to name a few whilst in the CAPI Enumeration Manual, Mr. Toruworu will be taking the trainees through CAPI application, the theory part of it and then practical exercises having actual step by step navigation through tablet and CAPI application features and how it is operated. Finally, the Supervisors’ Manual for the trainees mainly to impart idea on the role of the supervisor in the field before and after the enumeration as well as the reporting protocols.
After these 8 days of training, the Pilot Census Enumeration will commence on Wednesday 18th of October for a period of 10 day. The interviewers will allocate themselves and spread out to the Census Units (CU) and start enumerating households as listed in the CUs. In an event that a household is not listed, the enumerators will update the household listing and sketch CUs on the maps and enumerate them simultaneously. The traditional way of conducting census will be used as well as the use of tablets where CAPI application will be used in the enumeration.
The main idea behind this Pilot Census exercise is to test out all census procedures in the actual census. It helps to discover challenges that can affect the main data collection process, these challenges can then be addressed to ensure smooth flow in the main census enumeration that will fall on the July of 2024.
This training would not have been possible without the support from NSO’s very own Morobe Provincial Census Coordinators both urban and rural for their unwavering support by organizing and arranging for venues and logistics making it easier for the officers to just hop in and have a smooth start and a successful first day of training yesterday.
Contributed by Warren Kape
