NSCB leads kick off of 23rd National Statistics Month; aims for public appreciation of statistics

By Michael Vincent D. Cajulao

  

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Oct. 1 (PIA) – The National Statistical Coordination Board-9 (NSCB) led the official opening of the 23^rd National Statistics Month Celebration today, with hundreds of participants from different national line agencies and schools joining the kick off ceremony at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University.

  This year’s theme is Monitoring Progress on Decent Work Thru Statistics: Pathway to Inclusive Growth.

NSCB-9 Regional Head Mewchun W.S. Pamaran, in a training conducted last week by Department of Labor and Employment as part of its NSM activity, expounded on the theme saying there should be appreciation of statistics as this is a great tool used to measure the region’s economic performance, and the whole country in general.

“Typically, for the masses, statistics are just figures. But for us statisticians, these figures give us different pictures and scenarios of what is happening with our economy. It helps us measure how are our economy is faring. Thus, we need to let people appreciate statistics more”, Pamaran said.

Pamaran also stressed the importance of passion on the part of statisticians in doing their job.

“There is technically no room for mistake in statistics. From data gathering to analyzing what we gathered, we have to make sure that everything is correct otherwise, our findings are rendered useless. When we commit mistake in data gathering, everything is incorrect. To come up with accurate data we have to validate and clean our data many times as possible to make sure everything is right. To do this, we should be passionate on our job”, she said.

Not to be neglected, according to Pamaran, is the public’s cooperation to come up with accurate and precise data statistics.

“Unfortunately, there are people who shun away from surveys or census conducted by us in the government. Why is this so? Because of their lack of appreciation also on what we do. If the public do not give honest answers our findings will also be greatly affected since we treat data that come from them. We may not portray the true status of our economy. It’s like a domino effect”, she said.

The month-long celebration will also feature different line agencies’ activities to cater to the public. One of the highlight activities is the upcoming 3^rd Quarter Survey on Agriculture and Fisheries Production in Region 9 to be conducted by the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) on from October 1 to 15, and lectures on the Provincial Data Review of Agricultural Statistics for the 3rd quarter of this year on October 11-12, and 2012 3^rd Quarter Regional data Review of Agricultural Statistics.

Other activities include information dissemination on the different statistics pertaining to economy, health, poverty, and program accomplishment or implementation from partner agencies.

There will also be trainings on digital literacy for women trainers by the National Computer Council (NCC), Techno-transfer for Balik-Pinay, Balik Hanap Buhay by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration-9 (OWWA), and Disaster Risk Reduction Seminar and Earthquake Orientation and Drill by the Office of the Civil Defense-9 (OCD), among the long list of activities.

NSCB will also spearhead a tree-planting activity on at the Pasonanca watershed area on October 19. (JPA/MVC/PIA9-ZBST)