One of the methods for data collection is sending schedules through the enumerators or interviewers. The enumerators contact the informants, get replies to the questions contained in a schedule and fill them in their own handwriting in the questionnaire form. There is a difference between the questionnaire and schedule. Questionnaire refers to a device for securing answers to questions by using a form which the respondent fills in himself, whereas schedule is the name usually applied to a set of questions which are asked in a face-to-face situation with another person. This method is free from most of the limitations of the mailed questionnaire method.
Merits
The main merits or advantages of this method are listed below:
1. It can be adopted in those cases where informants are illiterate.
2. There is a very little scope of non-response as the enumerators go personally to obtain the information.
3. The information received is more reliable as the accuracy of statements can be checked by supplementary questions wherever necessary.
This method too like others is not free from defects or limitations. The main limitations are listed below:
Demerits
1. In comparison to other methods of collecting primary data, this method is quite costly as enumerators are generally paid persons.
2. The success of the method depends largely upon the training imparted to the enumerators.
3. Interviewing is very skilled work and it requires experience and training. Many statisticians have the tendency to neglect this extremely important part of the data collecting process and this result in bad interviews. Without good interviewing, most of the information collected may be of doubtful value.
4. Interviewing is not only a skilled work but it also requires a great degree of politeness and thus the way the enumerators conduct the interview would affect the data collected. When questions are asked by a number of different interviewers, it is possible that variations in the personalities of the interviewers will cause variation in the answers obtained. This variation will not be obvious. Hence, every effort must be made to remove as much of variation as possible due to different interviewers.
