Interviewer instructions
Direct respondent interviews: In this survey, unlike many other surveys, we collect data directly from the respondents. This is in contrast to surveys where the head of household or his/her spouse are the only respondents who answers on behalf of all household members. Instead, in the GHS Panel Survey, each person 5 years and above should respond directly to the interviewer for him/herself. For children under 5, a parent or care giver is respondent. The only exception to the age limit rule is where there are other respondent age restrictions as indicated in the various sections of the questionnaire.
In some cases a household member may be away from home during the whole period when the interviewer is in that area, or the member might be in poor health/disability and cannot answer the questions for him/herself. It might also be that the individual is not allowed to answer. In such cases, the interviewer can ask the most knowledgeable person to answer instead of household member that is unavailable.
In order to collect information directly from each household member, interviewers should visit the household as many times as necessary to get information from each individual member. Compliance with these procedures would ensure quality, reliability and accuracy of collected and entered questionnaire data.
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1. Data entry and correction of inconsistencies: Immediately after each visit, data will be entered and checked for consistency and completeness. Information would be revealed on any inconsistency, error or omissions, and the supervisor would inform the interviewer on all such corrections which are to be made on a return visit. This system enables data correction by the ones who are most competent to do it: the respondents who gave the original answers themselves.
2. Organization of work: In order to enable implementation of this methodology, workload by interviewer per certain period of time is to be defined. The interviewer is responsible to complete such work during the given time.
Keep in mind that the households to be interviewed could have different cultural background and different reactions, attitudes and behavior in terms of the survey. The interviewer would have to interact with households of different structure, social and economic status, different level of education, employment status, habits, religion, etc. It means that the interviewer should have to develop significant capability of understanding and communication in order to be able to establish good relation with different persons, and that way to achieve success in different situations which he/she could face during the survey, particularly difficult ones. Besides the above mentioned, the interviewer must establish confidence with the respondent, which would enable him/her to get reliable and positive survey results.
Section 2 ? Education
The objective of this section is to measure the level of education or formal schooling of all household members. The key educational indicators that are of interest are enrolment rates and dropout rates. Dropouts are persons not currently attending school, were attending school the previous year, and have not completed their studies. Additional educational indicators include the highest grade completed and the type of school attended (private or public). The section also collects information on literacy levels and education expenditure. Print the individual number (person ID) of the person actually interviewed and responding on behalf of other household members.
There is flap attached to this section (flap A on page 24) and the interviewer should have this flap open for use with this section.
This part covers general information related to education in the past 12 months. Questions are asked on the highest grade and qualification attained, and the expenses incurred on education in the past 12 months.
Respondent: Information should be collected on all household members who are 5 years and above in the household. Proxy answers are allowed as parents/guardians can answer for their children who are under 12 years old.
Question 1: It is very important to note if this answers is being provided in proxy or not (i.e. is the person answering for him/herself) if yes write 1 and skip to question 3 but if no indicate by writing 2 and continue to q2.
