The Bauchi State Government, through the state Ministry of Education on Saturday, commenced a two-day training for 370 enumerators to be deployed in conducting the state annual school census.
The census, according to the state Commissioner for Education, Dr. Jamila Dahiru, who addressed the enumerators, was meant to help the government know the actual numbers of schools, students and pupils of both the integrated Quranic and public schools as well as existing facilities.
This, Dahiru said, would adequately equip the state government with the necessary data needed for proper planning.
“Without correct data, we won’t have something to work on. We are hoping that using our annual school census for this year, we will be able to come up with projects and planning for anything that we want to do in the next few years.
“So, if you mislead us, we will be misled entirely, and it is important that you capture and present accurate data,” the commissioner said.
While congratulating the enumerators for being selected to participate in the exercise, the commissioner told them that the exercise was very crucial and as such, they should effectively and accurately carry out the exercise.
Dahiru informed the enumerators that the school census would commence on Monday, 6th March and last for 10 days and urged them not to leave any school behind.
According to the commissioner, the school census was imperative for the state government to know the number of out-of-school children in the state.
She added that the current statistics, which claimed the state has the higher number of out-of-school children in the country, are not correct.
“The reason why we said we want to have a robust annual school census this year is because over the years, we have been having records of Bauchi state statistics of out-of-school children where we were told that we are now leading in Nigeria.
“We believe that this is not true. If we have people, ministries, other agencies, and recruiting teachers over the years and enrolling students, yet we keep on topping the chart, I think something is wrong.
“Either the data is not correct or we are doing something wrong. And so, we want to find out,” Dahiru said.
She, therefore, appealed to the enumerators to go out as the state ambassadors to get true data capable of helping the state government and other stakeholders in improving the state’s educational sector
