The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Guimaras Provincial Statistical Office is currently conducting the 2023 National Information and Communications Technology Household Survey (NICTHS) covering 194 households (HHs) in the province of Guimaras.

The 192 sample HHs were from the 13 Enumeration Areas (EAs) covering 12 barangays from the four municipalities: 97 HHs in Buenavista,33 HHs in Nueva Valencia, 25 HHs in San Lorenzo, and 19 HHs in Sibunag.

The Brgys in Buenavista with sample households were: Getulio (16HHs), Salvacion (21HHs), Tastasan (18HHs), Dagsaan (5HHs), San Pedro (22HHS), and San Nicolas (15HHs). In Nueva Valencia municipality, the chosen HHs were from barangay Concordia Sur, Salvacion, and Canhawa, with 10, 22, and 21 samples, respectively.

Other sample HHs were from the barangays of San Lorenzo: Aguilar (12HHs), and Cabano (13HHs), while only 19HHs in Brgy. Tanglad, and Sibunag will be enumerated.

The PSA implemented the NICTHS in coordination with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), which aims to gather updated household data and individual Information and Communications Technology (ICT) necessary for producing internationally comparable core ICT indicators.

The information gathered will also serve as valuable input in monitoring existing programs and project development and formulation of future policies geared towards the advancements of ICT in the country.

The survey will support evidence-based policies and plans for the improved implementations of ICT services in the coming years. It is also a crucial step towards monitoring the performance indicators in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Philippine Development Plan (PDP) Result Matrix, DICT plans, and international benchmarking indices.

The major data items in the survey include Demographics; Access, availability, usage, and ownership of ICT; E-waste awareness and disposal practices; Compliance with SIM card registration; Participation in digital economy/e-commerce; Experience with technology-enabled incidents; other indicators like functional difficulties due to health problems, artificial intelligence, emergency, and disaster preparedness.

The survey questionnaires were reviewed by the Technical Working Group (TWG) and cleared for conduct under the Statistical Survey Review and Clearance System (SSRCS), a mechanism implemented by the PSA under Rule 28 of Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act (RA) No. 10625 to ensure sound design for data collection; minimize the burden placed upon the respondent, effect economy in statistical data collection; eliminate unnecessary duplication of statistical data collection efforts; and achieve better coordination of government statistical activities.

The PSA encourages all the sample households, individuals, and barangays to participate in the 2023 NICTHS by providing truthful information to our hired enumerators. Authorized PSA interviewers will visit the sample households, individuals, and barangays to conduct personal interviews that officially started on the 5th day until the 29th day of February.

The PSA Guimaras hired one (1) Team Supervisor (TS) and two (2 Statistical Researchers (SRs) who underwent training from January 29 until February 1, 2024.

The hired TSs are mainly responsible for the following:

1. Attend the TLT and learn the concepts, definitions, and instructions to be used in the data collection;  
2. Pay a courtesy call to the barangay officials to secure their permission, give information about the local health protocols, and endorsement to conduct the survey in their Enumeration Area (EA); 3. Conduct an interview using the NICTHS Barangay Questionnaire through CAPI;  
4. Accomplish the questionnaires completely and correctly according to the instructions stated in the Field Operations Manual (FOM);  
5. Oversee/supervise the interviews of their team members or SRs;  
6. Mentor and meet with their team members (twice a week) to discuss the errors committed in conducting interviews and to correct these errors;  
7. Accomplish the Supervisor’s Observation Form (Attachment 4) to list down errors encountered; 8. Monitor the progress of data collection and report the weekly status report on enumeration (Attachment 5a-5c) to PFP;  
9. Handle non-response households/individuals;  
10.Address concerns on fieldwork problems raised by SR. If all means were already exerted, raise the issue to PFP; and  
11.Ensure that PAPI questionnaires (if any) are encoded to the CAPI system. Collect and keep the accomplished questionnaires in a secure location as these questionnaires will be collected by PFP.

On the other hand, the SRs will be tasked to administer the 2023 NICTHS survey questionnaire in each sample household/housing unit using the tablet. The following are the duties and responsibilities of SRs:

1. Attend the TLT and learn the concepts, definitions, and instructions to be used in the data collection;  
2. Pay a courtesy call to the barangay officials together with TS to secure their permission, give information about the local health protocols, and endorsement to conduct the survey in their EA; 3. Add assigned EA in the CAPI system;  
4. Locate the sample housing unit in your assigned area and conduct an interview using NICTHS Household and Individual Questionnaires;  
5. Accomplish the questionnaires completely and correctly according to the instructions stated in the FOM;  
6. Check/edit the data for errors/inconsistencies based on the CAPI Error Listing;  
7. Upload data (accomplished interviews) to the CAPI server;  
8. If the CAPI approach is not possible, the interview shall be done using PAPI. Carefully review the accomplished questionnaire for completeness, consistency, and correctness of entries before leaving the sample household. Encode from the PAPI to the CAPI system immediately, in case not possible, the SR may encode it by the end of the day. Ensure to keep the accomplished questionnaires in a secure location as these questionnaires will be collected by TS;  
9. Consult TS on any problem that may encounter at work;  
10.Make a callback (at most two callbacks with a maximum of three visits) return on different days to households whose respondents had not been interviewed during the previous visit, and keep all information collected in strict confidentiality as stated in Republic Act 10625.

As of February 12, 2024, PSA-Guimaras covered 31.96 percent of its provincial target (62 of 194 sample Households) for the 2023 NICTHS.

The enumerated 62 households were from Brgy. Tanglad (19HHs), Concordia Sur (10HHs), Aguilar (12HHs), and Canhawan (21HHs).