STATIN facilitating online training for nearly 10,000 persons who will be assisting with the process

Jamaica’s 15th National Population and Housing Census, which was postponed last year is being rolled out by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) in April.

The national census, which is conducted every 10 years, was scheduled for 2021 but was postponed due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The census will target every Jamaican, whether they live in private households, institutions – including prisons, or on the streets.

Carol Coy, director-general of STATIN, who made the announcement, explained that data collected from citizens will include age, sex, marital status, education attainment, religious affiliation, household composition, family characteristics, and household size.

Speaking on the Jamaica Information Service’s Get the Facts television programme, Coy disclosed that the institute would be facilitating online training for nearly 10,000 persons who will be assisting with the process.

Data collection under the census is expected to be carried out over a four-month period.

Coy appealed to citizens to participate in the census, noting that the information collected is critical.

According to her, “[We] need to look at the housing stock to see how Jamaicans are living… their access to electricity, their access to water, their access to garbage collection, and, which showed up during the pandemic, our access to internet.”

First census undertaken using tablets

Of significance with this upcoming census is that it will be the first one that will be undertaken using tablets. Coy explained, “we will be using tablets, and that, again is an area of concern. So, the data is encrypted, we can shut down the tablets if they are stolen”.

She added that the information gets to STATIN once it’s uploaded and, once the data collectors gather that information in the field, it’s uploaded and comes to the institute’s servers, and it’s now no longer on the tablet.

The STATIN Director General was quick to point out that, ”these are [measures] that we have put in place to ensure the confidentiality and STATIN has been operating for over 70 years and we have never breached this part of our mandate”.

She stated that the interviewers and supervisors will have identification from STATIN, and “we will also have a system where you can go to our website, put in the person’s name, and you can verify that the person is actually from STATIN”.

Coy advised that STATIN is in the process of getting a toll-free number, where persons can call.

The director-general emphasised that being vaccinated is not a requirement to be recruited as an interviewer

Sanitation tools will be provided

However, “we will be providing our interviewers with masks, sanitisers, and so what we’ll be following is the protocol from the Ministry of Health and Wellness. What we hope is that most persons would have gotten vaccinated, or a significant portion of persons would have gotten vaccinated by then to make the process much easier,” she advised.

She said STATIN will follow the Government of Jamaica guideline noting that “the Jamaican Government has not mandated vaccination, so we cannot do that for the census. We have not started but the recruitment will be done online. So, persons will have to apply on the STATIN website and they will have to do a pre-employment test online”.

The director-general state that the information collected during the census will be treated confidentially by STATIN. She explained that STATIN operates under the Statistics Act, highlighting that the Act makes it very clear that the institute cannot use or release any information to anyone else, whether it’s government or the private sector.