Sorry state of public schools’ toilet

They are both located in the same environment, called the same name and can be likened to siblings, but they are different when it comes to toilet facilities. This can best describe the state of public secondary  and primary schools’ toilets in Lagos State. Medinat Kanabe and Dorcas Egede report.

A primary or secondary school is supposed to be a place where children learn a lot of things. It is supposed to have very importantly, classrooms for the children and toilets where they can ease themselves if the need arises, but when there is no good toilet facility, it affects the children in many ways, even medically. Perhaps it could also be said that they are learning that easing oneself is not as easy as they may think.

The nursery and primary school is the foundation, so it is very important for a child not to miss it at this stage but with the look of things toilets in public schools around the state need a facelift, a serious one for that matter.

 A visit to nursery and primary schools

The Low Cost Housing Estate, Nursery School, Jakande Estate, Isolo, Lagos has in its compound two nursery and primary schools called School One and School Two.

The pupils in school one put on blue uniform while those in school two wear pink uniform making it easy to differentiate them as the schools don’t have any form of fence dividing it. This is not a serious matter.

When this reporter arrived the schools on the first day of this investigation, she waited until the school came to a close by 1pm and began to speak to pupils.

The first set of pupils were the school one pupils and they seemed not to understand what this reporter was talking about.

The question was: “Do you use your school toilet?” and the answer from the first 23 pupils was a big no. The next question that followed was “why?” and the answer was “nothing,” and they hurriedly left the presence of the reporter.

This reporter decided to focus on older children since the younger ones were not cooperating or seemed not to understand the reporter’s mission.

An older pupil who was later asked retorted, “Mummy, our toilets are bad so they have made a place for us at the back of our school where we use to piss alone.” A case of you can “wee” but can’t “pooh”

Another pupil in primary five said: “We have a toilet but no cleaner.” Asked who washes the toilet, she said it is late comers and primary six pupils.

At that point a parent who owns a carpentry shop across the school got involved in the conversation and added. “Look, madam, the state of the toilet is bad. Although I went to a public school and the toilets were not clean then, this one is worse. Imagine that when the late comers or primary six pupils wash the toilets everything passes through a pipe into the gutters because there is no soakaway. The odour you have been perceiving is not from the toilet but from the gutter.” A case of constituting public and health nuisance to the community.

When this reporter was done with school one, she faced school two pupils. One of them said: “I cannot recall the last time I used the toilets. I have always had to hold the urine until after school so I can urinate outside because even the small place made by the school for us to urinate smells badly.”

A primary five pupil told this reporter that the teachers have a separate toilet from the pupils and the primary four pupils wash the teacher’s toilet while the primary six pupils and late comers wash the pupil’s toilet.

All the students spoken to said there was no cleaner in the employ of the school.

After speaking with the pupils, this reporter began to speak with grown-ups who use the school as a computer learning centre.

One of them said; “I have been saying it as well. The toilets of both schools are very bad. We don’t use the toilets and we make sure we use the upper class room to avoid the smell. The class begins by 9am and ends by 12pm so we try not to be pressed during the three hours that we spend there.”

A compound somewhere in Akerele, Gbagada, houses two public primary schools, Araromi Nursery and Primary School and Kiniunifa Nursery and Primary School. This reporter who happened to see the assistant head teacher of Kiniunifa Nursery and Primary School as she was about to close for the day, explained her mission.

But the woman became uncooperative when she discovered the purpose of this reporter’s visit. She maintained that their toilets were in perfect condition, pointing out the one belonging to the other school, which was only recently renovated. But for the honesty of one elderly women most likely the cleaners, this reporter would have left the school believing that the toilets were indeed in perfect condition.

The offensive odour that hits your nostrils as you step into the toilet for the children is rather surprising, as the modern pit toilets appear clean. They have actually just been washed by the cleaner. A routine she undertakes at the close of school each day.

This elderly woman showed the reporter the toilets, which she said needed some facelift. She begged the reporter to see what they could do about it, believing that she was from some NGO or church. The last time the toilet was renovated according to an inscription on the toilet building, was in October 2007 by Christ Church, a parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).

A visit to another school in the Ifako area of Gbagada, Ifako Nursery and Primary School didn’t reveal much, as the head teacher of the school refused to volunteer any information to the reporter, she claimed their school toilets are in perfect conditions, even though the school buildings are in very bad shape; leaving you  to wonder how possible it is for the toilets to be in perfect condition if the school buildings are far from being in perfect condition.

The reporter however found out from the young man who received her at the gate that the toilets were not too perfect after all. He described them as manageable.

In the Bariga area of Lagos, the reporter visited a complex that houses about six government primary schools. All the other schools in the complex seemed to have new or renovated buildings except Bishop Howell’s Memorial Primary School. So, the reporter decided to visit the odd school. Pretending to want to use the toilet, the reporter was shown a place to ease herself. On getting there she discovered that the place was in such a decrepit state that not even a pig would luxuriate in it. There, she met the woman who cleans the place. She confirmed that of all the toilets in the complex, theirs was the worst. She however expressed hope that since the government had worked on the buildings of the other schools theirs would not be an exception.

The head teacher of the school told The Nation that it’s been five years since they submitted the proposal for the renovation of their school building. They are still expectant that the government will sooner or later fulfil its promise. While waiting on the government, he said they are still soliciting the help of philanthropists in their community. He believes that it will only be a matter of time before the government does the needful to make their own school like the rest in the complex.

A visit to public secondary schools

The compound of the Oke-Afa Senior Secondary School, Isolo which is in the same street with its nursery and primary school also houses its Junior Secondary school but unlike its nursery and primary school, both schools are demarcated with a fence.

Senior students who spoke to this reporter described the toilet of their school as terrible. According to them, “We have two toilets; one is used by SS1 and 2 students while the other is used by the SS3 students. The one for SS1 and 2 isn’t good at all. It is not even manageable. Our classmates defecate and urinate at the entrance of the toilets so even if the main toilet is clean, we cannot go in.

“We have a cleaner who I can say does not know her work. She just gives the SS1 and 2 buckets, broom and soap to wash the toilets while she supervises. If we don’t clean the toilet well, she will tell us to go and clean it again.

“The SS3 toilet is better because it is the former teachers’ toilet. There is running water inside and wash hand basin and water system. My friends and I don’t use the toilets; we hold our urine until we get home or get a place outside the school where we can use before we get home. Our teachers don’t even enter the class close to that toilet because of the smell that comes from there.”

The Junior School students though, had a different story to tell. “Our toilets are very good. We have a cleaner who is always on standby to clean it. She makes sure everybody who enters there use the toilet properly and flush after use. We are not in any way involved in the cleaning of the toilet,” they said.

Head-teachers, Principals speak

A woman whom the reporter met in school two’s headmistress office said: “I can say we don’t have toilets at all. We have only four here, two for the teachers and two for the pupils and they are not in good condition. School one borrowed us toilet in the other building and you know it is not going to be easy managing something that is in another man’s building.

“Apart from that, the distance is not encouraging. To go from here to that place is a big work. Even the one we have there, no water, nothing. The children just have to manage. We also take care of the toilet our selves. We buy everything we use to keep it clean because if we don’t do it that way, they will lock it up.

“There was a time we employed one of the parents to be cleaning it and we were paying her N10, 000 donated by some parents but whenever we don’t have money to pay her, she stays away until we call her again that we now have money.”

Before the woman started to speak with the reporter, she called a man to join her in talking to the reporter. He chipped in one or two things every time the need arose, at this point he said: “At times I make use of late comers to clean the toilet.” What is made clear indirectly is that the school does not have in its employ anyone to take care of the toilets.

Asked if it is true that the little ones in classes like primary four also wash the toilets, she said no but the man again chipped in: “No, they don’t wash but yesterday I saw them washing the female teachers’ toilet and when I asked them who sent them, they said they did something wrong and were being punished.”

On the gutters and why they smell so bad, she said it also affects the other school as she disclosed that the mechanics who work outside the fence of the school urinate and defecate in the gutters. “Residents have also turned the gutters to their refuse dump and it is left for us to clean it up because we cannot go and call them to do it.

“Although, just like us, they have made a place where the children urinate, it is directed to the gutters also. You may also be shocked to hear that owners of shops around the school and boys who go about aimlessly have turned our fence to their toilets. They also throw their faeces into the school.

“The worst is that those mechanics leave vehicles there so we cannot burn anything because of the fuel.”

When the reporter left to the other building to talk to school one headmistress, she was said not to be around. She had gone to the hospital for medical check-up, according to the people on duty.

The Principal of Oke Afa Junior, said: “We have a cleaner here and she does not engage in any other thing but cleaning the toilets. Since she is collecting money every month she has to do the work while we supervise her. She is being paid by the Eko Project that has just ended but we have been promised that if we keep her and pay her salary, we will get a refund.”

The Vice-Principal of the Oke- Afa Senior Secondary School,  who also spoke with this reporter said: “The toilet they are talking about is an abandoned toilet. We have a good toilet donated to us by the Eko Project which is in the other building. If they are pressed, I cannot be here and there so I will not know where they are using.”

He took the reporter to the toilet that was built by the Eko Project. This confirmed the students’ claim that there are two toilets; one upstairs and the other downstairs. The reporter saw students coming out of the toilet with buckets to flush.

The VP continued: “I can even eat there. If possible you can take pictures of the toilet.”

On who cleans the abandoned toilet and the Eko Project toilet, he said: “What happens is this. We have a sanitation manager; when she cleans it and it is messed up again, we punish the students by telling them to clean it.

“You see, that is part of our training, you have to learn to keep your environment clean, you have to keep your classroom clean too. So they only wash the toilet if they are on punishment. We can’t flog; the only thing I can do is tell them to wash the toilet. We don’t have a bush here that they can clear. I can even ask the SS3 students to wash the toilets if they are dirty.

“So we have two abandoned toilets, one is permanently sealed while the other one is not sealed but students are not expected to use it as their main toilet. When students go in there, especially the boys, they just urinate anywhere and the whole place begins to smell.”

He also took the reporter to the two abandoned toilets that are close to the SS1 and SS2 classrooms. “You see the toilets; there is water in this drum (pointing at a drum) because we know they will come here but before they enter, you see the boys urinating everywhere.”

Asked if they will continue paying the cleaner after the Eko Project he said they will not want to lose her because she is thorough and does not play with her job. I cannot say if we will continue after the project but I can say we will try to keep the toilet clean and in order. God willing, however we can sustain it, God will help us.”

Dr. Femi Adedugbe, a General Medical Practitioner and Managing Director, Lives Fountain Medicare, Ilasa, decried the poor state of toilets or their non availability in public schools. He added that even when there is a toilet the necessary things like water, toilet seats, soaps, and other antiseptics may not be provided. He said the deplorable state can increase the rate of infections in children.

Most of these infections are waterborne, and food borne. Food borne in the sense that they go to the toilet and don’t wash their hands and still use the hand to eat which can lead to diarrhoea or even cholera.

If it is cholera and they don’t get adequate medical attention, it could lead to death.

The long term effect, he observed can be that the person will become infected with the typhoid germs and begin to transfer it from place to place as he becomes a carrier if not well treated.

 On what happens when children hold their urine for too long, he said it is not a good thing to hold urine for too long because when they hold the urine for too long in the bladder, if there are germs in the urine there is a tendency that it will settle and pose dangers later in life. This can in turn lead to severe infections when they breed and multiply.

Asked if it is safe to ask children to wash toilets, he said there is nothing wrong in punishing children by telling them to wash the toilet as long as they are provided with hand gloves, a lot of water, antiseptics and buckets.

Between teachers and SUBEB

A teacher at the Metropolitan Junior College, Isolo said the school has one cleaner who cleans the toilet once a day. She also sweeps the principal’s office and teacher’s office. The children are in charge of keeping their classroom clean.

A teacher from another public school said: “To say the truth, some public toilets are good and clean but some are in conditions that one cannot describe. Also, many schools don’t have enough toilets to serve the number of pupils and students in the school so you can imagine how such a toilet will look.”

When The Nation called the State Universal Basic Education Board, a top official who spoke on condition of anonymity said, “The position of SUBEB is very clear. We are providing better infrastructure, quality and quantitative education for our children.”

The SUBEB official’s response is the standard expected from such quarters, however, the situation on the ground beggars belief as many public schools are in terrible bad shape. If classes where students an pupils receive their lectures daily and are as such in public focus are in poor state what about the toilet facilities that are most times tucked away from public glare on most school premises? The truth is that the state of our public schools toilets are in need of radical surgery to curb the spread of toilet related diseases.