Census office to hire teachers

CEBU, Philippines - The National Census and Statistics Office (NCSO) will hire 222 public school teachers in Mandaue City as enumerators for the May 17 to June 11 census of population and housing in the city.

This was revealed last Tuesday by Engr. Emmanuel Abellana, District Statistics Officer during the convening of the City Statistical Coordinating Board led by Mayor Jonas Cortes.

Abellana said the enumerators will conduct a house to house census, each with a target output of 17 houses daily.

Aside from these enumerators, NCSO office will also hire 44 team supervisors and 9 census area supervisors, all teachers and another 9 assistant area supervisors who are not teachers.

The board is tasked to assist the enumerators in terms of security, census materials, and transportation, among others.

Abellana said the one week training for area supervisors and their assistant will start on April 14 who will in turn train the enumerators.

Virginia Zapanta, vice chair of the board and City Division Superintendent said her teachers are always ready to assist the census.

Hired teachers will be receiving P367 for the Area supervisors, P338 for the assistant area supervisor, and P279 for the enumerators as they will also be given free meal allowances per day.

Abellana identified the subdivisions and the most problematic area based on the last census in 2007.

In view of this, Mayor Cortes offered assistance by instructing Archt. Florentino Nimor, head of City Planning and Zoning Department to hold meetings with subdivision officials.

Nimor, who also heads the Housing, Urban and Development Office, will also meet with urban poor leaders to ensure easy access for the enumerators.

They will also tap the barangay captains.

Mayor Cortes also expressed concern over the results of the last census wherein the population growth rate of the city at 2.7 percent is much lower than the 2000 census which was 6.3 percent.

But Abellana said this result has many factors which include the less influx of settlement areas compared to the nearby cities such as Lapu-Lapu.

However, the population of the city increased remarkably from 258,000 in the year 2000 to 318, 5777, he said. -  THE FREEMAN