Is it impossible to read a gpio pin in 5.1.1 android system?

i have bpi m3. it is excellent product. I have installed android 5.1.1 but the /sys/class/gpio/ folder does not exist. so i can not do iOT applications. Is there another way to read the gpio pins? or can the android system be recompiled?

I understand. But I want to read or write the gpio pins. I need the /sys/class/gpio/ folder to do this…(export unexport) . Android 4.4 has this folder. Why this version of android /sys/class/gpio/ folder does not exist. As a developer I see this as a shortcoming.