Once in a while, some events happen that shines more light to issues that concern a particular community. When such events happen, you use the opportunity to confront the truth and deal honestly with it or most time you look into the issue to bring it out in another perspective or worse find an excuse to blame someone else.
The relationship between students in all sectors and the personnel involved in their environment is to add to the moral and academic life and contribute in leading etiquette. Relationship with people has and will always remain a critical dimension of academic life. Human relations especially the relationship between students and teachers is on healthy technique but non-academic staff has their role in the life of a student i.e. mutual aid, collective work.
It is said that morality is the fundamental drive of being a civilised conscientious human that rises through self-awareness and self-regulation. As a girl child, morality is a virtue and an advantageous quality that needs to be imbibed in her for future purposes. Normally, the girl child is expected to be sensitive of her environment.
Environmental decontamination (cleaning and disinfection) has been advised by the government to be practiced by all sectors of education to fight against Coronavirus. Janitors are employed into every area of the University of Jos for cleanliness. Janitors have been assigned to Abuja hostel, PG hostel, Zion hostel, Village hostel, Faculty of Arts etc. these people are meant to make sure the school environment is clean and conducive for learning and promoting hygiene.
We have learnt that few students in Zion hostel are being rude and disrespectful to the janitors assigned there. Therefore, the janitors transfer aggression to other students causing clashes between themselves.
On 26th February, 2021, it was witnessed there was a clash between a student and a janitor. It is recorded that janitors are expected to resume their work by 8am on weekdays, a student in the department of theatre arts who just woke up and brought out plates to wash in front of her room unknown to her that the janitor had swept and mopped the floor where her room was located. She was washing and littered the spot the janitor had cleaned. The janitor returned and was shocked why the place she mopped was littered. The janitor called out the girl to clean up the place. The student started exchanging words with the janitor.
As portrayed in our investigation, many children grow up thinking using a place and cleaning the place after use is beneath them and it is a job done only by those lowly regarded workers so they downgrade janitors. Students in Zion hostel pay their yearly hostel dues so they feel they have the right to treat the janitors anyhow because it is believed by them that they pay the janitors from their yearly hostel dues. It is therefore infuriating when people have the notion of treating the janitorial staff in a disrespectful way.
As mentioned to us in the introduction of this report, human relation is a stage everyone has to go through to understand life and affects people’s way of thinking. Janitors are being hostile to other students causing an unhealthy approach from both sides. Many times students purposely get the environment dirty knowing fully well this people are meant to clean it up.
In conclusion, the janitors are unsung heroes of students. They should be appreciated, make them feel free in the environment they are working for. Does this mean that students cannot get the hostel littered then how will they do their work to be paid? Definitely the hostel will be dirty but students should respect and appreciate them. We should consider the way janitors are being treated and the student body should make effort to value the effort of everyone most especially the janitorial staff.
