Adeem Niaz

The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics  (PBS) has started training master trainers for conducting population and housing census in the country to facilitate policymakers and planners, WealthPK reports. The inaugural ceremony of training of master trainers for conducting the seventh population housing census was held here on Tuesday at the National Institute of Banking and Finance (NIBAF). Minister of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Prof Ahsan Iqbal was chief guest on the occasion.

The ceremony was also attended by Dr Naeemuz Zafar, the chief census commissioner, and members and senior officers of the PBS. The training will be conducted in five batches. The master trainers, after completing the training, will further train trainers at the division level. The trainers at the divisional level will further train enumerators at the tehsil level. The training, to be completed in three tiers, will be imparted by ethical, subject and IT experts from PBS and National Database and Registration Authority.

The training will be focused on standardising the concepts. The quality of training will ensure the reliability of data collection. Apart from conventional training and conceptual videos, real-life examples, case studies, mock exercises and frequently asked questions have also been added to the training. To make the sessions interactive, the trainer’s involvement and questioning have been encouraged.

Pre and post-test and cross-questioning are also part of the training. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Naeemuz Zafar said that PBS was able to complete all preliminary activities and move forward for training and enumeration with the efforts of its officials, the cooperation of stakeholders and the support of the government. Muhammad Sarwar Gondal, a member of support services, said that the seventh population and housing census would be the largest digital activity in the whole region.

He said that important features of digital census included extensive planning, involvement of stakeholders, effective publicity campaign, training, geo-tagging of structures, development of different modules of software, real-time monitoring, quality assurance and provision of reliable results as per timeline. Minister Ahsan Iqbal said that resources could not be provided without having a clear picture of population parameters. “Census is important for policymaking and planning.

National Finance Commission awards and delimitation of boundaries are also linked with the population census. Pakistan’s high rate of population increase is alarming while our resources are decreasing day by day, due to which our youth are deprived of basic opportunities,” he added. The minister said that three things were kept in mind while planning and executing the project.

“First is taking on board stakeholders, second is the involvement of academia and the third is hard work, as the quality of efforts will ensure the quality of data,” he added. He appreciated PBS for launching the seventh population and housing census in the shortest possible time. He said that the success of the training would be a great step towards the success of the census, according to a press statement received by WealthPK.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk