The Ghana Statistical Service has set a tentative date of October 17, for the end of the 2010 National Population and Housing Census. The exercise which was scheduled to end on Sunday October 10, was pushed forward after several calls for extension since many people have not been counted. The 2010 Census has been burdened with several anomalies including inadequate materials and logistics which have hampered smooth counting. As at Saturday October 9, less than half of the estimated population of Ghana had been counted according to the Census Secretariat, hence the extension to ensure that everyone living in the country is counted. The Director of Field Operations and Publicity at the Census Secretariat David Kombat told Citi News, the Secretariat is optimistic to complete the exercise by the end of the new date of October 17. “What we are doing is that, we are assessing the situation on the ground and where we find that an enumerator has a large area and requires the assistance of another enumerator, we quickly mobilize some of the enumerators who are standing by to go and assist because the longer you push the end date, the more difficult it is for people to remember what happened during the Census night . And so we are working hard so that we don’t have the extension go beyond this weekend." Mr. David Kombat said considering the rate of work and the non-existence of inadequate logistics particularly questionnaires, they should be able to finish by October 17. Inasmuch as the census secretariat is determined to count everybody during the exercise, the prolonged enumeration is likely to impact on the estimated GH¢70 million budget for Census 2010 with funds from the national kitty and donor partners. However, the Government Statistician Dr. Grace Bediako does not consider a swell in budget a major concern. She is rather concerned about getting a message across to the public that the census is ongoing and also to ensure that enumerators are always at post. Responding to a question on the continuous availability of teachers engaged as enumerators following the re-opening of schools, she said the census secretariat was negotiating with the Ghana Education Service (GES) to see how best the services of teachers could be maintained. She added that there were some stand-by enumerators whose services could be engaged in teachers’ stead. Dr. Grace Bediako expressed appreciation to members of the public who had co-operated with census officials during the census, and appealed to others to offer similar courtesies to enumerators. Source: Citifmonline.com