Inside The Female Hostels Of RSU, IAUE

 

A student journalist, GRACE WOGBO, writes about life in the female hostels of two universities in the city of Port Harcourt 

Behind the journey of higher education lies a beautiful world of female students, who left the comfort of their respective homes to embrace the independent lives that living in university hostels throws up at them. At the female hostels, they brace up to new realities and self-development.

For female students of Rivers State University and Ignatius Ajuru University of Education in Port Harcourt, mixing up with folks drawn from different parts of Nigeria and indeed the world from diverse social and cultural backgrounds could be great fun.

The fun notwithstanding, hostel life comes with challenges that range from academic pressure to the psychological well-being of students.

Living in the Hostel, an interesting experience:

Living in the hostel as a female undergraduate comes with a mix of unique experiences, a world that is both fragile and resilient, that provides opportunities and complexities at the same time.

Female hostels provide safe havens, homes away from home for students, making it easier for them to have easy access to their classes, library and extra-curricular activities without worrying about the burden of high cost of transportation and commuting time. Staying in the hostel also affords them the opportunity to focus on their studies.

Female hostels give the girls a sense of community amongst their peers as they help them form new friendships, networks; develop their social lives/skills, provide security and instill policies that protect female undergraduates.

Security personnel and hostel porters help provide a safe living environment for female undergraduates and avail them of facilities and amenities that make life easy and comfortable for them as they go through their academic journeys. These amenities and facilities include: power supply, laundry facilities and study halls

Living away from home helps students become independent and develop essential life skills, and teaches them how to manage their own schedules, budgets and personal responsibilities. 

Challenges:

However,  living in the hostel as a female student has its fault lines . These challanges affect the social, economic, medical, psychological and personal wellbeing of the  students. 

Findings by the reporter revealed that the hotels are often over populated with few water taps and bathrooms. Consequently, this is taking a toll on some of students students. 

Ibiliaete, a female student at the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUE), collaborated with the  findings saying,  "Yes, the hostels are overpopulated with few water taps, bathrooms and toilets".

 "Some rooms are too small. Students will be like 10 to 15  in some hostels.The room in the hostels should be spacious enough for students to occupy freely.

Continuing,  she said, "Also, some of the rooms' doors have no locks like my room. Windows are open. There is high rate of malaria due to poor hygiene and other factors, unrepaired taps and bathrooms. Students have to be inconvenienced in these areas because they go late to classes as they queue up to manage one bathroom to have their bath."

Further monitoring shows that the Potters, Pottresses and hostel reps are apparently aggressive and sometimes exploit students by imposing fines of about  N5,000 on students who fight rather  than report them to the authorities.

Miss  Douglas in the  same school confirmed this.

She listed the challenges to include seizure of the student's belongings when one fails to partake in hostel  cleanup.

 "The people in charge of guarding the hostels seizes belongings even  a student travels for emergency insist on 'bailing' of such seized properties with money. Our hostels do not have cleaners, so we do all the cleaning ourselves."

She also disclosed that the hostel gates are locked by 9pm lamenting that the time is too short and should be extended to 9:30 pm to enable students who travel to return. 

Also,  Rebecca Enyi , another female undergraduate of IAUE complained that hostel policies are too strict.

She says: "We are not allowed  to create fun activities or hold programmes in the hostel and they do not come for supervisions in the rooms.

A female student at Rivers State University,  Emmanuela, said, maintaining personal hygiene in the hostel is a huge challange as it has severally led to altercations and conflicts. 

According to her, maintaining cleanliness in hostels can be  very challenging . Differences in personal hygiene with my roommates and hostel mates have led to conflicts and discomfort severally; same thing with sharing of personal belongings and having to put up with allergies most times. There are also cases of theft and misplacement of  personal belongings in hostel rooms.

"Also, there is battle for identity, societal expectations, peer pressure and judgements/criticisms that come as a result of cultural beliefs, faith, values and morals within this small space. And most importantly, there is very little or no provision for counseling or healthcare services specifically tailored to meeting the needs of female undergraduates."

Allison Favour,  another student of RSU talked about the curfew and restrictions on appliances. 

She says: "The common issues students encounter include strict curfews, limited visitation hours, and restrictions on appliances."

Way Forward:

Allison suggested that to remedy the challenges, policies should be revised to allow more flexibility in curfews based on academic schedules; visiting hours could be extended, and adherence to restrictions can be reviewed to align with modern needs while ensuring safety."

Furthermore, she said flexibility and clear communication between students and staff are key for effective policy changes like room size and amenities, maintenance of facilities, training for leadership roles like porters, sufficient cleaning schedules, and robust security measures. 

"These shortcomings could stem from inadequate planning, lack of ongoing evaluation, or insufficient resources allocated to hostel management. Addressing these areas could significantly improve the overall hostel experience for students." She suggested.

For some of these challenges to be tackled, some policies and changes need to be made to reduce or even remedy some of the challenges female undergraduates face in the hostel.

Policies such as making provisions for healthcare and  counseling facilities specifically to cater for female needs, building more bathrooms and toilets will help a lot.

Preferably, each rooms should have their bathroom and toilet to reduce the spread of diseases or infection, assigning general cleaners to hostels, conducting regular checks in the hostel and  inquiring  from the students, areas they feel discomforted and need improvements should be considered.

This story is facilitated by the Step-Up for women In Journalism Initiative, (SWIJ), with  support from  the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCI), under its Report Women Project.