Less than half of the estimated population of Ghana had been counted by Sunday’s expiry of the initial two-week period allotted for the 2010 Population and Housing Census. As a result, the Government Statistician, Dr Grace Bediako, has reiterated that the census officials would continue with the enumeration exercise until such a time that everyone living in the country was counted. Although Dr Bediako could not give a definite timeline on the completion of the exercise she told the Daily Graphic at the weekend that stringent efforts were being made to cover the remainder of the population by the end of this week. She, therefore, assured members of the general public who had not yet been counted that they would surely be covered to ensure a complete and successful census. The National Census Secretariat had projected to undertake the enumeration exercise within two weeks" ending Sunday, but shortage of census materials, heavy rainfall in some parts of the country and uncooperative attitude of some members of the public, have posed serious challenges to enumerators. While many residents across the country have expressed concern about the fact that they have not been counted, some census enumerators have also expressed frustration about shortage of materials and other challenges. According to Dr Bediako, the shortage of census materials has been addressed, while more enumerators are being sent to areas will more than anticipated population sizes, to ensure speedy enumeration. She said some people had been uncooperative during the exercise on the grounds that they were foreigners, and expressed the hope that such attitude would be done away with to ensure the success of the exercise. She said it was important to count everybody living in the country in order to ensure a complete and successful census. Dr Bediako urged members of the public who had not been counted or whose houses and structures had not been numbered to contact the census secretariat for prompt response. One major challenge that enumerators may still have to contend with is heavy rainfall which has led to flooding in some parts of the country, particularly in the north and the Volta Region. Inasmuch as the census secretariat is determined to count everybody during the exercise, a 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 does not consider a swell in budget as a major concern; her concern is to get 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 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: Daily Graphic