Population housing census - 60,000 Field Officers to be recruited

Daily Graphic (Back Page), Tues, April 6/10
Story Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho

SIXTY thousand field officers are to be recruited through the Internet this month as the beginning of the preparations for the conduct of the 2010 National Population and Housing Census.
The National Census Steering Committee has fixed the date for the start of the 2010 National Census in the last quarter of the year but is awaiting confirmation from the Cabinet.
Ghana’s 2010 national census, which was originally expected to take place in March, was delayed because the Census Secretariat needed ample time to capture data from a trial census organised in November last year.
A member of the Recruitment and Training Unit of the Census Secretariat, Mr John Kwabena Agyaho, told the Daily Graphic in Accra that the secretariat would do the recruitment through online applications.
Three new areas, namely agriculture, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and disability, have been introduced into the 2010 questionnaire for the future use of such data.
Some of the normal questions that would appear on the questionnaire would elicit information on age, fertility, religious affiliation, as well as educational and economic characteristics of people.
This year’s census will also capture all housing structures, including kiosks, mosques, churches and school buildings in the country.
The Census Secretariat has estimated to capture about 25 million people, who will be residing within the country during the census.
According to Mr Agyaho, after the trail census, the secretariat realised that some unscrupulous persons sold recruitment forms for GH¢10 and therefore the online application was a way of eliminating such fraudulent deals.
He said the minimum qualification for an applicant would be a Higher National Diploma (HND), adding that an online recruitment, which would attract about 100,000 applicants, would make it faster and easier for qualified applicants to be selected.
He said the online application process will also give all the applicants an equal opportunity for them to be selected.
Mr Agyaho, who is an Assistant Statistician at the Ghana Statistical Service, added that the service would make available its offices at the regional and district levels and also open satellite offices where people who would want to be enumerators or field officers would go and fill the online application forms.
He said the site www.statsghana.gov.gh would be open till the end of May to give ample time for all interested applicants to apply.
He added that the applicants would be shortlisted for an interview and those who would be successful would be trained before they were put on the field.
He said the secretariat was in talks with the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the regional and district directors of education to ensure that teachers were encouraged to apply as enumerators or field officers.