LAHORE, April 26: Data about 210,000 or so public and private sector institutions in the country, including religious seminaries, has so far been collected and a report of the first National Education Census will be ready by mid-June.

“We have also covered 96 per cent institutions in Kohistan, NWFP, parts of Balochistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir,” federal secretary Asad Elahi of the statistics division told this reporter on Wednesday.

For the first time, every minute detail about the institutions was being collected, compiled and tabulated simultaneously, he said.

The census would be covering pre-primary, primary, elementary, middle, high, secondary, higher secondary, intermediate, degree, home economics, business management, information technology, law, agriculture, fine arts, education, medical and dental, pharmacy, engineering, accountancy, mono and polytechnic, vocational, special education, nursing, homoeopathic, Tibbia and Ayurvadic, veterinary and animal sciences schools, colleges and universities, non-formal basic education besides distance education institutions.

Religious seminaries also offering formal education along with religious education would be part of the census report, he said.

It would have number, gender and academic session or year-wise enrolment of students and the dropout rate, institutions, teachers, equipment and other facilities besides the gender-wise strength of teaching staff, their educational qualifications and experience.

Mr Asad said the report would classify the institutions by type, management, gender, medium of instructions, registration status, number of shifts, buildings’ ownership, condition, type of construction, number of rooms and facilities like hall, library, hostel, playground, boundary wall, latrine and canteen besides computer, physics, chemistry, zoology, botany and home economics laboratories.

Data about availability of electricity, drinking water, gas, telephone, instrumental material like maps, black or white boards, charts, teaching kits and guides, textbooks and audio-visual equipment besides chairs, tables, desks, benches, almirahs for teachers and students would also be collected. The head of the institution would verify information by affixing his signature and official stamp.

However, the information provided would be treated as confidential, would only be used for obtaining aggregate statistics and would not be made available to any individual, government agency or department for any other purpose, he said.

“A verification by the councillor concerned will be sought if a village has no educational institution,” he said.

Expenditure incurred and the receipts during the 2004-05 academic year have also been included in the census, being carried out by the Federal Bureau of Statistics of the Finance and Economic Affairs Ministry in collaboration with the Education Ministry and with the assistance of Unesco.

The process of data collection began on Nov 21 last year at a cost of Rs185 billion, he said.

“Some 1,100 enumerators are collecting every minute detail about the institutions according to international standards. All provincial governments have data about educational institutions under their control. This is for the first time, a neutral body or third party is collecting a comprehensive information about all educational institutions in the country,” he said.

A team comprising officials of the education ministry and the Federal Bureau of Statistics have started a counter checking of filing of forms by the enumerators by conducting surprise raids in the field.

Mr Asad said the report would be very beneficial for all tiers of the government because it would help plan and evaluate development activities in the education sector at federal, provincial, tehsil and district levels.