In our religion, cleanliness is considered next to godliness and a key component of faith. Meanwhile, in our culture, cleanliness goes beyond individual preference. Some cultures in Nigeria even believe that sweeping the surroundings early in the morning clears away lingering evil from the previous day and brings good luck for the new one. Cleanliness is therefore valued in every part of our society — in homes, schools, places of worship, and public spaces. Every household, institution, and industry includes hygiene checks and maintenance as an essential part of its operations.
From early childhood, children are taught to take care of themselves and their environments. In schools, students learn to clean classrooms and shared spaces, with many primary and secondary schools assigning turns or roasters for this task. These early practices help build responsibility, respect, and discipline.
Globally, schools also emphasize sanitation in similar ways. In Japan, students participate in Osouji, the daily cleaning of classrooms and common areas. In Finland, students help tidy classrooms and cafeterias. In Singapore, schools run hygiene routines that involve students actively. These approaches teach collective responsibility, respect for shared property, and personal discipline — values aligned with what many Nigerian schools encourage at early stages.
However, by the time students reach university, cleaning is mostly handled by paid staff. Universities are meant to nurture both academic and moral discipline, yet hygiene responsibilities are often shifted entirely to cleaners. This gap between early training and university practice can create challenges when sanitation issues arise.
Sanitation in universities directly affects health, comfort, and academic performance. Poor hygiene can lead to infections, stress, and loss of dignity.
Recently, female hostels at Bayero University, Kano (BUK) brought these issues to light. Videos and interviews showed cleaners struggling with limited water, overused facilities, and inadequate supplies. Some student behaviours make maintenance even more difficult, forcing cleaners to fetch water from distant sources.
The goal is not to assign blame to students or the university. Instead, the situation reflects a complex mix of structural, social, and behavioural factors. Analyzing these factors can help identify practical, fair, and sustainable solutions for students, cleaners, and institutions alike.
Reasons Why Female Students Struggle with Shared Sanitation Spaces
- Background and Prior Experience
Students come from diverse backgrounds. Their prior exposure to toilets shapes comfort and behaviour in shared spaces.
Some students have always had private toilets at home. These are shared only with family. They may feel uncomfortable sharing such spaces with strangers and end up looking for secluded corners to relieve themselves. Others have experience using public latrines in villages or local markets. Cleanliness there may not be strictly maintained. A few may have relied on open defecation.
When these students converge in a federal university hostel, adapting to shared, well-maintained facilities can be difficult.
A student accustomed to a private toilet may refuse to use a shared toilet if it is not immediately clean. A student used to unmaintained public latrines may not flush or clean up after themselves. Without proper orientation, this diversity of prior experience creates a gap in expectations and behaviours and affects the overall hygiene of the space.
- Inadequate Cleaning Resources and Institutional Support
Even when students try to maintain hygiene, facilities themselves can make it impossible.
Many hostels have too few cleaners, insufficient detergents, and irregular water supply. In some cases, cleaners are underpaid and overworked. They may be expected to wash toilets multiple times a day without proper supervision or equipment like gloves, overalls, or cleaning tools.
At BUK, cleaners reported having to carry buckets of water up several floors because the water supply in the hostel is inadequate.
Even if students use toilets properly, lack of support and resources ensures the space becomes unhygienic. This shows institutional support is critical in understanding sanitation challenges.
- Lack of Accountability
Sanitation in shared spaces relies heavily on individual responsibility. Toilets are private, so sanitary surveillance is impossible while maintaining privacy.
Some hostels use room-to-toilet allocation systems. For example, four rooms may share one toilet. Residents collectively manage and monitor its cleanliness.
This system encourages accountability. Everyone knows who is responsible if the toilet is dirty.
However, in many cases, the system is informal or poorly implemented. There is no clear mechanism to ensure students maintain their allocated toilets.
Without accountability, hygiene quickly deteriorates, regardless of students’ intentions.
- Overpopulation and Non-Adherence to Standards
Another challenge is overpopulation. The number of students often exceeds the capacity of hostel toilets. For example, a hostel built for 200 students with 20 toilets may admit 1,000 students. This overwhelms the system. Overuse leads to rapid wear and makes cleaning difficult.
According to the National Universities Commission (NUC) standard, the expected minimum sanitation provision in university hostels is one toilet per ten students (1:10) (a widely referenced benchmark used in Nigerian tertiary housing assessments as of about 2012). Additionally, residential design norms often recommend one toilet per six female students (1:6) for women’s hostels, ensuring adequate privacy and hygiene based on architectural planning guidelines.
Adhering to student‑to‑toilet ratios like 1:10 or 1:6 is essential. When standards are ignored, no amount of cleaning effort can keep the space sanitary.
- Lack of Discipline and Ineffective Enforcement
Hostel leadership exists in the form of floor, block, and overall hostel representatives.
Yet, enforcing hygiene rules is often inconsistent and ineffective. Students who leave toilets dirty may face little consequence. Cleaners have limited authority to enforce discipline.
A possible improvement is linking sanitation behaviour to moral records. Recognizing good conduct and empowering student leaders and cleaners can ensure rules are followed.
This encourages personal responsibility without placing blame on any single group.
- Lack of Proper Orientation and Awareness
Many students arrive at university unaware of how to share toilets effectively. Some have never used a flush toilet before. Others do not know the health consequences of poor sanitation.
Hostels can address this through orientation programs, health talks, posters, and sanitation campaigns.
Organizing sanitation weeks, where students participate in cleaning, can increase understanding and appreciation of cleaners’ work. Additionally, employing students part-time as cleaners can provide income and encourage respect for shared facilities.
- Gender-Specific Challenges / Menstrual Hygiene
Menstrual hygiene adds a unique layer of complexity. Improper disposal of pads, water shortages, and lack of bins create messes.
These issues are stressful for both students and cleaners. For instance, a student flushing a pad or leaving menstrual blood on the floor due to poor water supply creates sanitation and emotional challenges.
Recognizing and addressing menstrual hygiene management is critical. It ensures equitable and hygienic shared spaces.
- Lack of Sustainable Infrastructure
Some hostels are built with unsustainable designs, poor materials, and inefficient water systems.
Toilets may waste water, break easily, or fail to serve the growing student population. When infrastructure is not designed for long-term use or population growth, hygiene problems become inevitable, regardless of student or cleaner effort.
- Peer Influence and Social Norms
Behaviour in hostels is shaped by peers. Poor hygiene tolerated by some spreads; respect and care modeled by others also spreads.
Cultural attitudes toward menstruation and shared spaces further influence behaviour. Understanding these social dynamics is key to explaining why some students neglect sanitation practices.
Solutions / Improvements
Maintaining clean hostel toilets goes beyond blaming cleaners or students; it requires proper support systems. A steady water supply is foundational. Cleaners should not rely on carrying buckets over long distances, as this slows work and reduces effectiveness.
Cleaners also need adequate tools and materials such as detergents, gloves, and protective clothing. When they are properly equipped and fairly paid, cleaning schedules are easier to maintain, even in high-traffic hostels.
However, cleanliness cannot rest on cleaners alone. Student accountability is essential. Assigning toilets to specific rooms and sharing keys among responsible users encourages care. When students know a toilet is “theirs,” they are more likely to keep it clean. Clear reporting systems help address recurring issues without resorting to punishment.
Orientation and awareness also play a key role. Many students are unfamiliar with shared sanitation systems. Integrating hygiene education into hostel orientation, supported by health talks and visual reminders, helps build responsible habits early.
Finally, functional and gender-sensitive infrastructure supports all these efforts. Upgraded toilets, proper disposal bins, and menstrual hygiene education reduce misuse and ease cleaning. When facilities work well and cleaners are respected, hygienic behaviour becomes a shared culture rather than an enforced rule.
Conclusion
Sanitation is vital for health, dignity, and well-being. Female hostels at BUK show that hygiene issues arise from a mix of structural, social, and behavioural factors. Poor hygiene is not only students’ fault, nor solely a failure of institutions. It comes from gaps in experience, resources, infrastructure, and norms.
Solutions require a holistic approach: provide resources, create accountability, orient students, improve infrastructure, support cleaners, and encourage positive social norms. Menstrual hygiene, sustainable design, and peer influence are essential.
The ultimate goal is to create shared sanitation spaces that are clean, safe, and respected.
Students can focus on education and well-being. Cleaners are supported and empowered. Together, institutions, students, and staff can build healthy, sustainable, and inclusive environments based on care, responsibility, and mutual respect.
