The Bauchi State Ministry of Education began a two-day training of 370 enumerators for its annual school census on Saturday.

Addressing the enumerators before the commencement of the training in Bauchi, Commissioner for Education, Jamila Dahiru, said the exercise was crucial as it would help the government to establish the actual numbers of schools and student population in all schools, including those in Quranic schools.

She added that it would also help to establish facilities needed in the schools and in the gathering of data necessary for proper planning.

Ms Dahiru charged the enumerators to effectively and accurately discharge their functions and ensure that no school was left out.

She explained that the census would last for 10 days, starting from March 6, 2023.

“We want to have a robust annual school census this year because, over the years, we have been having records of out-of-school children in Bauchi State where we were told we were in the lead.

“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 topping the chart, I think something is wrong,’’ the commissioner said.

Ms Dahiru urged the participants to go out as ambassadors of the state, keeping in mind that the acquisition of correct data was their topmost priority.

One of the enumerators, who spoke on behalf of all, Ibrahim Dauda, promised to do the needful in getting and presenting credible data that would help to improve the educational system in the state.

(NAN)