Page 409 - Contributed Paper Session (CPS) - Volume 6

CPS2000 Agnes M. N. Ssekiboobo
b. SSP needs a home much as the university in general has adequate central
teaching facilities. The number of students continues to grow and
therefore this limits the effectiveness of SSP in their teaching and research
programmes.
c. The training of middle level staff has remained a challenge. Like
professional level training, the course content should be periodically
reviewed and changes made to reflect current priorities and latest data
collection and processing methods. The question is whether for further
training of professional staff, priority should be given to practical courses
of short duration (not more than 9 months) or training up to Masters level.
Does the work of NSOs or the National Statistical Systems (NSSs) in
general deem training beyond Masters degree necessary or desirable?
Are the NSS or the NSOs sufficiently developed to undertake in-depth
substantive or methodological research which may require post-masters
training? It should however be noted that these offices should undertake
some analytical work and countries have to assess the need for post-
masters training from time to time. The question would then be whether
the training in analytical techniques should be one that leads to the award
of a degree.
d. Limited funding from government.

4. Discussion, Conclusions and Recommendations
The last two decades have been a period of promise and SSP has done well in
addressing the main challenges namely the dynamic user needs in African
countries and loss of monopoly. The School is now an active centre for both
basic and applied research and through research has made significant
partnerships and contributions to different areas of national development and
also to the international arena. It is important to note though that the
expansion of study programmes and student numbers has constrained
existing SSP and other university infrastructure. For SSP to continue
functioning effectively, the following aspects must be looked into:
a) The staff of the SSP should be encouraged to spend their Sabbatical Leave
at various NSOs in the region to gain practical experience in the subjects
they teach and also to contribute directly to the improvement of statistical
work at the NSOs.
b) Modularize Courses. Modularization of teaching programmes should also
being considered to enable short-term competency-based training of
varying durations providing students with on the job and off the job
training.
c) Introduce e-learning. There is need for SSP to introduce e-learning as a
means to vary and strengthen teaching programmes. E-learning will not
only make it possible for the SSP to provide training for staff that cannot

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