Hi Tom:

So, I decided on 10gR2 database to 
EXEC DBMS_SCHEDULER.DISABLE('GATHER_STATS_JOB'); to disable the automated job and use the GATHER_SCHEMA_STATS of my own and schedule it. Since all the tables are in "monitoring" mode in 10G, I thought to use GATHER STALE option with estimate percent 10.

Here is what I did:

1. EXEC DBMS_SCHEDULER.DISABLE('GATHER_STATS_JOB'); 
2. EXEC dbms_stats.delete_schema_stats('ADBASE'); 
   -- to delete the schema stats
3. BEGIN
  DBMS_STATS.GATHER_SCHEMA_STATS (
     ownname => 'ADBASE',
     estimate_percent => 10,
     block_sample => FALSE,
     method_opt => 'FOR ALL INDEXED COLUMNS SIZE 1',
     degree => NULL,
     granularity => 'DEFAULT',
     cascade => TRUE,
     stattab => 'STATTABLE',
     statid => 'ADBASE',
     options => 'GATHER STALE',
     statown => NULL,
     no_invalidate => FALSE,
     force => FALSE);
END;
/
4. Then I checked with the following query, but it is no rows:
SQL> select max(last_analyzed) from dba_tables where owner='ADBASE' ;

MAX(LAST_
---------

5. But if I change it to GATHER, then the above query shows that the stats are collected.

Am I doing something wrong?

Also, the above syntax give me the following error on Oracle 9iR2:

ERROR at line 2:
ORA-06550: line 2, column 4:
PLS-00306: wrong number or types of arguments in call to 'GATHER_SCHEMA_STATS'
ORA-06550: line 2, column 4:
PL/SQL: Statement ignored

Can you please advise, what am I doing wrong?
Thanks. 

demo@PDB1> create table t1
  2  nologging
  3  parallel 4
  4  as
  5  select a.*, rownum as id
  6  from all_objects a,
  7     all_users b ;

Table created.

demo@PDB1> select stale_stats,num_rows,blocks,last_analyzed
  2  from user_tab_statistics
  3  where table_name ='T1'     ;

STA   NUM_ROWS     BLOCKS LAST_ANALYZ
--- ---------- ---------- -----------


demo@PDB1> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(user,'T1',degree=>4);

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

demo@PDB1> select stale_stats,num_rows,blocks,last_analyzed
  2  from user_tab_statistics
  3  where table_name ='T1';

STA   NUM_ROWS     BLOCKS LAST_ANALYZ
--- ---------- ---------- -----------
NO     3569124      75312 16-JUN-2020

demo@PDB1> drop table t2 purge;

Table dropped.

demo@PDB1> create table t2
  2  nologging
  3  parallel 4
  4  as
  5  select a.*, rownum as id
  6  from all_objects a;

Table created.

demo@PDB1> select stale_stats,num_rows,blocks,last_analyzed
  2  from user_tab_statistics
  3  where table_name ='T2'     ;

STA   NUM_ROWS     BLOCKS LAST_ANALYZ
--- ---------- ---------- -----------


demo@PDB1> create table t3
  2  nologging
  3  parallel 4
  4  as
  5  select a.*
  6  from all_objects a;

Table created.

demo@PDB1> select stale_stats,num_rows,blocks,last_analyzed
  2  from user_tab_statistics
  3  where table_name ='T3'     ;

STA   NUM_ROWS     BLOCKS LAST_ANALYZ
--- ---------- ---------- -----------


demo@PDB1>