Charles Wendo
10 December 2011
Over 100,000 Ugandans will get short-term jobs related to the 2012 population and housing census due to take place in August.
The executive director of the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, Dr. J.B. Male-Mukasa, said the recruitment process has already begun with the appointment of district census coordinators.
Census offices have already been established in many of the districts and UBOS has asked chief administrative officers to nominate census officers.
“The jobs will be there, but they will be recruited at the district level. The only thing we will control is the training,” said Male-Mukasa. The recruitment exerciseis expected to be complete by June so that training is completed by the end of July. The precise census data in August is yet to be set.
“It is going to be a massive exercise. The census takes you to each and every household, unlike elections where people come to one point to vote,” Male-Mukasa said.
Between 80,000 and 90,000 enumerators will move from house to house collecting data on households and individuals. Each of them will cover 60 to 70 households.
“The minimum qualification is one’s ability to read and write well in the local language. We have translated the questionnaire into 20 local languages,” Male-Mukasa said.
The enumerators will spend an average of two hours in each household. Much as the enumeration will take them about 10 days, they will be paid for one month to cater for the activities that they will engage in before and after enumeration.
Because the census will be carried out during school holidays, teachers and students will have the opportunity to compete for the jobs.
“We are working with the health ministry to ensure the August holidays are at least four weeks so that the census is completed before schools re-open,” Male-Mukasa said.
Every six enumerators will have one supervisor. This implies that over 13,000 people will get jobs as supervisors. Priority will be given to community development workers.
In addition, every parish will have a guide. Currently Uganda has more than 5,000 parishes.
So far UBOS has set up the national census coordinating structures, initiated awareness campaigns and carried out a pilot census.
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