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However, time of the dissemination much depends on the approval of the higher
authority.

92. Apart from these two major data collections, from time to time, the concerned
departments and local administrative and education offices gather data from schools as
the need arises for different planning purposes, mostly relevant to the local level.

Secondary and Tertiary Education

93. The data collection forms are initiated and distributed by BANBEIS from the
central level. Data are collected from both public and private secondary schools,
colleges, Madrasahs and technical-vocational institutions. After the establishment of
EMIS database and school mapping during the EMIS project funded by UNDP in 1999,
BANBEIS collected school census data for the year 2001 and 2003. Due to lack of
resources, school censuses were not carried out in years 2000, 2002 and 2004. For
these years, BANBEIS conducted sample surveys to estimate the trend
(increase/decrease) of enrolment. Data for new institutions are updated through direct
data collection by the officials and staffs of BANBEIS.

94. If the school census is to be conducted, normally it is around July or August.
BANBEIS invites district education officers for two-day training/briefing to explain the
questionnaires. During the workshop, the questionnaires (based on the number of
estimated institutions of the respective district) are given to them to distribute to the
institutions. The district education officer then calls the Upazila/Thana project officers
(UPO) of the stipend projects to brief and handover the questionnaire to further
distribute to the institutions.

95. One copy of the questionnaires is distributed to each institution. The original
set of questionnaires is returned to BANBEIS at the central level. The district education
office and the school are supposed to keep a photocopy of the returned questionnaire
for reference; however, many have failed to comply.

96. Schools are expected to fill in the questionnaires within three to four weeks
and the head teacher should return the completed questionnaires to the UPO.
Sometimes the UPO collects the forms directly from the institutions. After collection of
school census forms, the UPOs then hand over all forms to the district offices. The
district education office collects all forms from all Upazilas of the respective district and
sends them directly to BANBEIS. The questionnaires for professional institutions and
universities are sent directly to the institutions from the central level.
97. On average, it takes three to four months to receive the completed
questionnaires back from schools to BANBEIS at the central level. A reminder has been
sent out to the district education officers who are tardy in returning the census forms.
Consequently, the data collection stretches up to six months. BANBEIS collects data
directly from some technical institutions, all professional institutions and the public and
private universities. The delays in data collection from these institutions are common
and in some cases two or more reminders were issued to the non-response institutions.

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