In Oyo, Infrastructure Deficit Contributes to Absenteeism Among  Secondary School Girls

By Peace Oladipo

It’s May 15, Aisha Oloyede had just started her menstruation unexpectedly. She found out from her peers, who brought to her notice the stained skirt. 

Overwhelmed with self-hate, the 14-year-old quietly gathered her books, carried her lunch bag and returned home, drenched in menses. “I wanted to clean myself up, but there was no toilet to go to wash the stain away a bit,” she recalled. Instead, “I walked back home, dense with blood and covered my stained skirt with my schoolbag.” 

Aisha is a student in her first year of Senior Secondary school at Community Grammar School Airport in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo.  

Although it’s been a year since the incident happened, the impact lingers. Now, Aisha misses school for five days every month when she’s menstruating.

“I don’t want to go through the ridicule I went through anymore, I’d rather stay home,” says Aisha with her head bowed. 

In 2023, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) revealed that 74 per cent of schools within Oyo lack access to basic sanitation services. Aisha’s school is one of the schools existing in the grim reality. 

Infrastructure deficit, which has bereft the state, has impacted thousands of girls, and has not spared her. As she and thousands of girls face the struggle to survive in the absence of sanitation amenities. 

Another school experiencing this, is a stone’s throw away from Aisha’s school, Community High School Airport. The toilets are unhygienic and are abandoned by the students. The girls in the schools disclosed that the functioning toilets are only utilised by the teachers working in the school. This makes the school better than Aisha’s school, which has no toilet for both teachers and students. 

Sharing the same reality as Aisha, validates the UNESCO study that says one in 10 girls misses school during their menstrual cycle. 

Wondering how schools in local communities would fare when those in close proximity with the state airport in Ibadan are experiencing this, this reporter visited public secondary schools in Ipapo and Iseyin.

Adedotun Popoola, a male student of Community Grammar School in Ipapo, under the Itesiwaju Local Government Area, says,  there are enough bushes around to discharge waste from his bowels. This is common practice in his school. 

 “We find our way, girls are the ones with extra issues,” he chuckled. 

Likewise, in the case of Ansarudeen Grammar Schools under the Iseyin Local Government area, Ansarudeen Grammar School 1 has locked up the students’ toilets because of a lack of water supply. 

The only option is a toilet behind the school in a deplorable state. The space is littered with dirt, empty water sachets, and human waste, creating an unpleasant sight and smell. 

Seun, a student of the Ansarudeen Grammar Schools, says she still comes to school during her period days, but she’s unable to concentrate well due to pain and fear of getting stained. “My friends and I move to a corner to change our pads whenever we want to change,” but those using rags have to wait till they return home before cleaning up, since they have to wash the blood off. 

“The way out is shot put,” one of the teachers at Community Grammar School, Airport says. 

Although, shot put is a sport or competition that features people throwing a heavy metal formed into a ball as far as possible. In Nigeria, it is colloquially used to mean wrapping faeces in a black bag and throwing it into a water body or bushy area, as far as possible. 

Most of the students do “shot put”, contributing majorly to the half population percentage practising open defecation in Oyo. 

During the school visits, this reporter learned that many female students chose to dehydrate or keep the urine within their system for hours, which might be damaging. A large number of medical articles have reinforced the risks and long-term damage associated with delayed urination. Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) is one of them. 

 

Despite Huge Budgetary Allocations, the Infrastructure Deficit is Large

 

Shockingly, the education sector has obtained a larger chunk of the Oyo state budgetary allocation for the last five years spanning  the administration of the current governor, Seyi Makinde. 

 

Huge budgetary allocations have been directed to the education sector from 2020 to 2025, as the governor considers education his administration’s agenda. In 2020, it received 22.37% of the ₦208.8 billion appropriation bill, amounting to a substantial portion. 

 

The allocation increased to ₦56 billion in 2021, representing 21% of the state budget, marking a ₦12 billion rise from the previous year. 

 

In 2022, the sector got ₦54.1 billion, 18.37% of the budget. This was followed by ₦58.2 billion in 2023, ₦90 billion in 2024, and a proposed ₦145 billion in 2025, reflecting a significant upward trend in funding. Despite this, there’s still a large infrastructure deficit in the public schools.

 

“There is a lack of oversight, strategic planning and effective implementation of the budget allocation,” says Taiwo Sunday, Communication Associate with Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative, a non-profit encouraging civic participation with Nigeria’s public audit system. 

 

He maintains that the absence of the state’s audit reports has incapacitated the public from knowing the implementation and expenditures following the budgetary process. 

 

“There is also no evidence of performance audits being conducted on education-related programs, projects, or policies in the state. This makes it difficult to assess whether government interventions in education are achieving their intended outcomes or providing value for money,” he concludes. 

 

The state has a long history of excluding citizens from inclusion in financial management and public expenditure, fueling concealment of waste, inefficiencies, or non-compliance with budgetary provisions. A recent report by BudgIT, a civic organisation promoting public accountability, also ranked Oyo as the least performing state on fiscal transparency in the last quarter of 2024. 

 

Need for GRESP 

 

A consequence of the toilet deficit is absenteeism and even a high rate of out-of-school children. According to a report, the state boasts an alarming rate of 20.9% of children out of school, notably higher than the national average of 10.05% of the country’s 200 million population.

 

Another disturbing trend is the uptick in girls dropping out of school, highlighting a national crisis. This means expansive decision must be made by the state government. 

 

Many experts, from diverse contexts, have revisited and reinforced the theme of gender responsiveness in the educational sector’s planning. The concept is reinforced the laying out of appropriate framework for a correlation between government structures, civic actions and gender equality outcomes in education. 

 

With the fulfilment of this concept, orchestrations could be made for gender responsiveness to enhance access, completion and equity in schools. 

 

“‘We are working on it” – Oyo state government

 

Suraj Abiodun, the Special Adviser for Education to the Oyo state governor, says efforts are being made to decrease the infrastructure deficit ravaging the public secondary schools across the state. 

 

“We are currently renovating about 40 schools across the local governments. The proposed rehabilitation comes with boreholes, toilets, solar and furniture.” However, this represents a small fraction of schools in need of renovation within the state, and none of the five schools this reporter visited were included. 

 

The Special Adviser, however, stated that the rehabilitation project is in phases. 

This report was published with support from Education as a Vaccine (EVA)