Girls hostel where juniors remove pad for the senior students
by Akintola Oluwatobi
Earlier this year, the media was all agog to unravel the circumstances surrounding the sexual abuse of eleven year old boarding school student of Deeper life high school. There are arguments and counter argument on the issue. One cannot but ask if boarding school has outlived it importance and if it is still advisable to enrol a ward in any of the boarding facilities in Nigeria.
Sexual abuse, bullying, inadequate feeding and boarders not getting adequate care are some of the internal problems bedeviling boarding students in various boarding facilities in the country. On the other hand, there are also problems that are beyond the control of boarding schools management. Prominent among them is the insecurity problem ravaging many parts of the country. As a result, boarding facilities has become a soft target for incessant kidnapping by bandits and Boko Haram terrorists.
Boarding and their challenges are enormous no doubt but the advantages too cannot be overstated. Boarding house gives busy parents the avenue to outsource the responsibilities of raising their kids to teachers and house masters while parents Concentrate on their jobs, careers or ministry. Boarding house has also proven to groom children to be independent. Students live a regimented lifestyle that inculcate punctuality and discipline in them.
A study conducted by the association of boarding schools (TABS) reports that 78% of boarding students are feeling prepared for higher education compared to 36% of day students. Similarly, the same study further stated that 78% of boarding school students are being motivated by their peers compared to 49% of day students.
Oluwatobi Akintola interviewed ex-boarders, parents, counselor and school administrator to know if it is still advisable to enroll children in boarding schools in Nigeria.
“Yes because of the advantages attached to it” stated Mrs Ilori Olubunmi. However, she pointed out that there might be some associated risks. She said enrolling a child in a boarding school depends on each parents “opinion, reasons and circumstances”. When asked if there is an appropriate age for enrollment, she said ” let’s say from age ten upward, they would have been able to differentiate left from right and can do certain things for themselves because they are a little bit mature compared to toddlers.”
The world is evolving and things are changing, so when Mrs Ilori was asked if there are differences between the present day boarding schools and what was obtainable in the older generations, “roads are not safe anymore”.She highlighted the risks associated to traveling to include bad roads, armed robbery on the highways, ritual killings and herdsmen activities. In her words “kidnapping activities are increasing on daily basis in our boarding schools”.
Apart from security challenges she also lamented the increase in boarding and tuition fees which makes it unaffordable to some parents as well as “bullying, exposure to immoral and illicit acts”.
Similarly, when she was asked if enrolling a child in boarding school is still advisable, a youth motivator and accountant, Mrs Adedoyin Ajiboye says “I don’t like boarding school from onset and with what is happening this days, to me it is not advisable to allow one’s child to go to boarding school if you can do without it”. She highlighted some of her worries and why she cannot enrol. ” Presently we have a lot of homosexuals, lesbianism, cultism and the rest even in primary schools. These things were not in existence before years back. But now, it has become very rampant”.
Mrs Ajiboye believes that enrolling a child in day school will give the parents opportunity to “monitor them better than allowing them to go to boarding school. So personally I don’t like the idea”.
Furthermore, another parent Mrs Eniola Adewumi, a nurse by profession says the choice depends on individual’s opinion. “The way I see the issue will be different from others, and there are schools and there are schools. The way I see it, boarding house is not meant for younger children for so many reasons.
Firstly, if you consider the number of years that your children will spend with you, you will not want to throw them out at their tender age. The number of years the children will spend with their parents is small. A child is expected to gain admission latest by sixteen-seventeen years, at that time you cannot compel any child to be under your roof. So if a child is expected to leave at sixteen or seventeen years and you’ve already thrown them out at nine or ten years it is not reasonable.”
Mrs Adewumi is of the opinion that the nascent and formative years of a child should be spent with the parents. Considering that the child will still leave the parents sooner. She stated that no child below the age of fifteen should be allowed to go to any boarding house. “Boarding is you handing over the care of your children to another fellow which can never be the same as you”. She said it is the the responsibility of the parents to study their child and know the type of child he or she is. She pointed out that children need to be molded between the ages of five to fourteen to fifteen. ” If proper training should elude a child at this stage, there’s nothing parents can do afterwards.” She added that such child will be molded automatically either positively or negatively. ” During the moulding period, you need to be on your toes and monitor them properly”.
However she mentioned that she never attended any boarding house until tertiary institution ” but I know how it works”. Having said that, she said the junior boarders are at the mercy of their seniors and grow up to become whatever the seniors planted in them. “Most of them have school mentor, mother, brother and sister among the seniors and they emulate whatever they see them doing”. Pointing out some of the vices of boarding schools, she said “i have heard of a girls’ hostel where it is the juniors that removes pad for the seniors or the senior handing over a used pad for the junior to dispose“. Ten – eleven year old are already jumping fence to meet opposite sex. Things like that can be averted under the watchful eyes and influence of parents.”
When asked on the differences between the present day boarding and that of the older generations, ” everything has changed. You can’t compare the educational system of those days with what is obtainable today. The trendy story of a certain school recently painted the real picture of the present day boarding school . Even as a boys school imagine what happened?”.
Mrs Adewumi added that underfeeding and other unmet needs makes a child to develop negative coping mechanism. ” They call it smartness and makes a child independent but it’s not worth it” just like Mrs Ajiboye she said “I prefer my children to go to school in the morning and return later in the evening. Let us sleep under the same roof, teach them the word of God, become wiser and know how to do chores. I detest boarding especially for under age.” Having said that, when asked if she has a perspective to the subject matter as a nurse. ” Nothing much except for consequences of social vices like teenage pregnancy, rape, STDs, abortion and is consequences”.
