Technical Glitches Frustrate Census Exercise In Gulu District

The National Population and Housing census exercise faced major challenges on Friday in several villages in Patiko Sub-County in Gulu district following technical glitches encountered on tablets used by enumerators.

Geoffrey Otim, an enumerator at Teladwong C village in Patiko Sub- County told Uganda Radio Network in an interview that they couldn’t undertake the exercise in six villages after failing to log into the computer system.

Otim says out of the 19 enumeration areas in the sub-county, enumerators only succeeded in conducting the census in two villages.

He said that the enumerators were unable to access installed programs on the tablets that show maps, household details, and GPS locations.

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Otim says they had informed the information and technology officer at the district about the glitches which hadn’t yet been settled.

Daniel Ali, the Patiko Subcounty Census Officer acknowledges the challenges enumerators faced at the start of the census exercise arguing that it greatly affected the activities.

He noted that only two enumerators were able to successfully conduct census exercises in the villages of Omoti and Pajaa. Daniel told Uganda Radio Network that the census exercise couldn’t be undertaken in six other villages of Patalira, Anganyi, Tulaliya, Teladwong, Anyadwe, and Akwi where the technical glitches affected eight enumerators.

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Patrick Komakech, the Patiko Subcounty however called on the district officials to intervene in rectifying the technical glitches so that accurate data is taken from the area.

“Right now, the system can't accept logging into the GPS location, map, and giving out household details. These are important parts of the exercise that need to be captured if accurate information is to be picked from Patiko Sub-County,” said Komakech.

Efforts to get comments from the Gulu District Planner David Omal were futile by press time.

However, Uganda Radio Network understood that a team of technical officials including the Information and Technology officer held an impromptu meeting with the enumerators whose gadgets malfunctioned in a bid to rectify the challenges.

The census being conducted countrywide will last for 10 days until May 19. The government expects to use the data obtained from the exercise to guide the country in planning, policy formulation, and program implementation among others.