Population and Housing Census 2005

Training of Census Office Staff

In the training strategy, the 10 office staff of the Census received the same training as all other employees in the Census. They were trained as Supervisors, enumerators and data coders and data entry operators. Initial training included courses in courtesy in obtaining respondent cooperation during the household listing and delineation, on a few database packages and on their overall understanding of statistical processes. The purpose of this strategy was to anticipate and be prepared to counter any unforeseen risks that might occur in the field or in the office.

Training of Supervisors
Supervisors from the outer islands were invited for a one week of training program to enhance their capabilities to conduct the census on their respective islands. The training modules (Appendix 4: Supervisors manual) included the household listing, the training of enumerators, the monitoring and supervision of the enumeration and the control of funds. Ad hoc training included the overall management of the resources and field work including some practical applications.

Supervisors from the Line Islands were trained on their island by the Deputy Census Commissioner. To ensure the consistency, she used the same training modules as were used for the outer islands and south Tarawa.

Training of Enumerators
The training of enumerators in the outer islands was conducted by the trained census supervisors, and were simultaneously provided with programs and modules used in the training of the South Tarawa enumerators. On South Tarawa all the enumerators were trained by the Census Commissioner following the enumerator’s manual. Training of enumerators in the Line Islands followed the same procedure as for South Tarawa and was conducted by the Deputy Census Commissioner.

Enumeration
The enumeration was conducted on schedule, the 7th November, 2005 nationwide except for Kanton where due to its isolated location; it carried out on the 31st December 2005, using the first available ship to reach the island. Those who were on board the ship were not counted in Kanton. The period for this enumeration was 2 to 3 weeks as a maximum. For outer islands, less than 2 weeks were possible although South Tarawa had the longest period of enumeration. In the Line Islands group i.e. Christmas Island, Tabuaeran and Teeraina, the enumeration was managed and controlled under the supervision of the Deputy Census Commissioner and was carried out on the same dates as elsewhere.

The enumeration included the involvement of the Census office staff. The flexibility and efficiency of these staff was beneficial during the enumeration. They were fully equipped for this enumeration and were involved in different aspects of the census activities. One was to replace the enumerator who did not turn up at the time of the counting, while two had to be sent to North Tarawa to assist the Supervisor on North Tarawa. One was sent to assist as a supervisor for Betio to minimize the load. The rest of the census staff were heavily involved during the enumeration period in enumerating all persons living in Institutions. There were 24 “collective households” in total on South Tarawa which these officers were assigned to enumerate.