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 probability of 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 to
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 going 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 boards should
henceforth include adequate students’ accommodation facilities as one of the
basic requirement to remain licensed or for being 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 at least.
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 both the
rich and the poor.
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.
AMATANWEZE,
KINGSLEY.
No comments:
Post a Comment