The Ministry of Education this week issued instructions for a public school student census for the 2017-18 school year.

It has requested all teachers gather accurate statistics on students in each classroom and submit them to school principals by November 10 so principals can then calculate a total for each school.

School principals are then required to send the total calculation from their respective schools to district education operations offices by November 20.

“The district operations offices have the responsibility to facilitate collecting these data and make an accurate report,” the statement reads.

The reports from the district offices must then be sent to the provincial education departments by November 27.

The provincial education departments in all 25 provinces will then be required to submit the data to the ministry by December 25.

Several Ministry of Education officials couldn’t be reached for further details as to why the data collection push is taking place.