The Uganda Bureau of Statistics(UBOS) has together with the Ministry of Education and Sports kicked off a headcount for all learners and teachers in the country.
The headcount terms as the baseline education census which started early this week with Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area districts of Kampala, Mukono and Wakiso before being rolled out to the rest of the country.
“The exercise will cover all learning Institutions in the country for both government and private establishments including pre-primary, primary, secondary, vocational and higher institutions of learning. During this exercise, the enumerators will interface with each learner in the school. For Pre-primary to Primary Five, class teachers shall assist the learners during interviews, while learners in Primary Six and above will serve as the primary respondents,” the state minister for Primary Education, Dr.Moricu Kaducu said.
She said the enumerators will collect data using Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI), commonly known as tablets to leverage on technology in Statistical production chain.
“ This will ensure accuracy and timely dissemination of statistics, hence guaranteeing quality education statistics.”
According to the minister, during the exercise, government will be looking for learner information including name, date of birth, sex, class,nationality, Learner Identification Number (LIN) for registered learners on the Education Management Information System (EMIS) portal and National Identification Number/Student Pass/refugee ID as well as any special needs of the Learner.
“For the teaching staff information, we will be looking for name, date of birth, sex, nationality, NIN/Work permit/refugee ID (where applicable), subjects taught, Teacher Management Information System (TMIS) Number, highest teaching qualification and highest level of education,” the minister said.
She noted that for non-teaching staff, they will be looking for the name, date of birth, sex, nationality, job title, NIN/Work Permit/refugee ID (where applicable).
The exercise will also be looking at the identities of the education institutions and through this, the enumerators will be looking for the name( of the institution/ school),EMIS number, operational status, license number and registration status as well as the location, including district, county, subcounty/division, parish/town council/ward, village/zone/cell and GPS coordinates .
“We will also be looking at the institution’s level and type including “ level of education, type of Institution, ownership, sex composition, founding year, UPE/USE status, institution’s contact details like telephone , email and name of respondent.
The exercise according to officials will also look at the number and size of classrooms, laboratories, libraries, toilets and washrooms, stores, sports facilities, workshop, teacher houses, teaching and learning materials like the number of textbooks per subject and teaching guides, information and status of the water and sanitation facilities, and main source of power supply.
“This exercise will improve education statistics, enhance school infrastructure data, monitor teaching and learning resources as well as inform decisions in the education sector,” Minister Kaducu said.
UBOS spokesperson, Didacus Okoth said a total of 8500 enumerators have already been trained, with 4000 deployed in the three districts of Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area.
“This exercise will cost about shs27 billion and we are prepared to ensure it is a success. For other regions, we shall resume when the second term opens and exercise will end on June 30,” Okoth said.
