Living in public schools' hostels: an experience or a nightmare?

'Oh! My God! But this was not what we bargained for!' That was the exclamation of a student on entering a hostel’s toilet in one of the Nigerian public varsities. Of course he wasn’t a fresher, but what must have made him to lament? A nightmare?  Gross hostel condition one may be quick to answer. But was this what he bargained for?  This is the  question begging for an answer.

Upon gaining admission to study in a higher institution of learning, a prospective student, couldn’t help but imagine how life in the campus would be. He fantasizes about a lot of things as regards campus activities, ranging from the academic to the social activities. He also gives some moments of his thought to how life in school hostel would actually be, haven heard a lot about campus life.

As a fresher, he couldn’t but be preoccupied by the imagination of the multifarious characters he is to encounter, most especially those he would be made to live with in the same room as roommates, by the students affair department. The thoughts of the wonderful time it would be to be assigned the same room with the good, the fear of the possibility of living with the bad, and the risk in being with the ugly occupies his thought. Nonetheless, he can’t still wait to experience the university life. But would the realities of the hostel life and its environment be fair to this student?

Getting close to some schools hostels, one gets greeted by a bushy environment, awful odour exuding from the gutters and sewage facilities, defaced look of the buildings among other unimpressive situations. Coming into the allocated room and discovering the number of students allocated to the same room, makes one unhappy. As a room a bit bigger than a normal sized room may be assigned  5 to 7 students. And this is common with boys’ hostels.

Most university hostels lack the basic amenities necessary for the survival of the students living in them, making it highly non conducive for a successful academic pursuit. Poor power and water supply has become a tradition that most riots and students protests are commonly associated with them, except in few cases that they are provoked by other factors. In most schools, students living in the hostels buy every drop of water they make use of. While power supply is even more unreliable than areas outside the campus. These nevertheless, are not the only ill conditions obtainable in the hostels as the list is near endless and the entries, appalling.

Those that attended the public tertiary institutions in Nigeria after the early 90s, and lived in the hostels, would be in a better position to testify to its rotten state of bathrooms and rest rooms. The deplorable state of the toilets and bathrooms is now  stale news to the general public and most people has taken it to be synonymous with student’s hostels. While the poor management of these facilities by the school authorities and students affair departments makes it to deteriorate from one state of decadence to a more horrendous one. Most of these facilities are hardly renovated even after serving for more than thirty effective years. Regrettably, their capacities are far under the population of the students making use of them. This expedites their decay that leads to an unhygienic environment, and thus a threat to the health of the students.

This is indeed a travesty of what is obtainable in the public tertiary institutions before the 90s. Some of those people that attended these institutions those days have bemoaned on the level of decadence in the hostels facilities these days. They have decried the poor maintenance of the hostel facilities, and have compared the miserable state to that of the good old days. During matriculation ceremonies: one of the occasions that takes parents and guardians close to their wards’ hostels, the despicable sights welcomes them, and shocking enough is the number of persons per room. Those of them that are educated reminisced their experience those days, and compared it to the nightmares of the present generation. Those day there was constant water supply, functional and affordable refectories, neat and sufficient number of bathrooms and toilets, just two or three students in one room, conducive reading rooms among others. These were their nostalgia.

Notwithstanding, most students still prefer living in the hostel to staying off campus. This is consequent on the live-in experience it affords them. These experience ranges from learning how to live with people of different characters and philosophies diplomatically, to how to manage limited resources. One other reason worthy of mention that attracts students to school hostels, is that it provides them with an environment of study consciousness. Thus being in an environment where one always sees his fellow students go in and out of reading rooms and library or studying in the room, makes him equally study conscious. And even the most unserious student would be moved. In other words, it brings about encouragement and motivational effect on a student. In addition to these, school hostels are more affordable, and provide security for students, except in schools where campus security is weak.

Therefore, the national university commission and other tertiary institutions regulatory boards should henceforth include adequate students’ accommodation facilities as one of the basic requirement to be licensed or remain licensed. Every institution should have an accommodation for at least 80% of her students. And also have provision for expanding the capacity with growth in students’ population. Though it is not compulsory that students should live in the public school hostels, a comfortable and conducive option should be provided for the interested ones.

The nature of the environment in which one if nurtured contribute a great deal to his behavior. Three to six years study duration is enough time to inculcate indelible attitude into ones character. And the hostel provide this attitudes in multifarious forms, depending on the standard it is kept. A ghetto-like hostel has a high tendency of producing graduates of poor manners, uncultured members of the society, rugged and belligerent citizens. Such hostels are more or less of the standard of a penitentiary of the least quality. But a five star hostel neat, uncongested, conducive secured and supplied with necessary social amenities creates an enabling environment for improved academic performance. This produces graduates of high diplomatic sense, patriotic citizens and orderly individuals.

However, if the government and the school authorities are incapable of providing these shelter needs of the students, then the private sector should be allowed to participate. While strict measures should be put in place to ensure that they give the best of services to students, and at a rate affordable to all and sundry

In conclusion, an ideal school hostel provides an avenue for improved experience on interpersonal relationship; a platform for exchange of ideas and innovations; an environment for productive brainstorming among students and excellent academic performance. It is a brooding nest for future quintessential of different professions, and should be made capable for that responsibility. The sorry sights and miserable situations that constitutes the nightmares in most school halls should be brought to an end. The clamour for the adoption of global best practices should also be extended to the management of our hostels. The government and elites should make the hostels to be like a place they would like their own children to live in. Thus, the glory of public schools hostels which serves as a shelter for future leaders and scholars must be restored so that it could once more provide a worthwhile experience.
Kingsley Amatanweze,
 What was your hostel experience like? What would you like to say about public schools' hostels? Make it known in the comment box below: