AS Statistics Class Field Trip to Central Statistics Office

By Rhea Tailor, Lower Sixth Statistics Student.

Just before the holidays, the AS Statistics class traveled to Lusaka, accompanied by Mr. Chibangu, the Head of the Mathematics department, and Ms. Blackweir, the Academic Deputy Head and our Statistics teacher.

The whole reason that this trip was organised was because we students were curious to know whether – and how exactly – the theory we were learning in class was actually put to use in the real working world. Our questions were answered by the end of our visit!

Our meeting was held at the Central Statistics office, widely known as the CSO, and began at 9:00. We were kindly welcomed by Mrs. Sheila Mudenda, the Assistant Director in charge of Information Research and Dissemination. When we found out that she has been working there for 25 years due to her love for the job, we realised that there are career options in this field that people willingly choose and have an interest in.

As Mrs. Mutende spoke, we discovered that the CSO has been attempting to reach out to the younger generation in order to spread awareness about the importance of statistics in our everyday lives. Last year, during the African Statistics Week, the CSO visited two primary and secondary schools, a university and a college in Central Province to inspire students there. Mrs. Mutende urged us to ‘always look for statistics’ and encouraged us to be ambassadors of the CSO.

The CSO generously provided four more speakers who elaborated on Mrs. Mutende’s brief introduction. These were: Etambuyu Lukonga, Mr. Zonde, Mr. Kabibwa and Mr. Chipayla.

For almost three hours, we  learned a great deal about what the CSO is all about and how it uses the statistics we learn about to help them do their jobs. We learned that topics such as central tendency, spread of data, probability and many more we are yet to learn are key parts of the function of the CSO, one key example being the population census conducted every 10 years.

After this knowledge-rich meeting, we were briefly given a tour of the building with some amazing views of Lusaka. It was a very educational and interesting outing for us; something different from the usual. It has given us great motivation to continue studying Statistics.

We are so grateful to everyone who made this trip happen. It truly helped us broaden our understanding of Statistics and Mathematics as well as think about our future career paths. It is our hope that future classes get to have the same experience than we did.