Impact of Fuel Subsidy Removal on Staff Welfare and Students Academic Performance in Tertiary Institutions in Delta State

This paper examined the impact of fuel subsidy removal on staff welfare and students’ academic performance in tertiary institutions with a view of looking at the measures put in place by the government in ensuring that the people are not affected by the subsidy removal. Four research questions were posed for the study. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised all staff (teaching and non-teaching) of all government owned tertiary institutions in Delta State. The sample of the study consisted 120 staff drawn from three selected tertiary institutions in Delta State. A structured questionnaire of 30-item on four-point Likert scale was used for data collection. The instrument was validated by two experts in measurement and evaluation. The reliability of the instrument was determined by using Cronbach Alpha reliability method and the reliability coefficient was 0,82. The data collected was analyzed using statistics of mean and standard deviation. The findings of the study revealed that fuel subsidy removal affected staff and students’ welfare and student’ academic performance in tertiary institutions. The findings of the study further revealed that the extent to which government intervention on fuel subsidy removal can mitigate the sufferings of staff and students in tertiary institutions. The ways of alleviating the constraints experienced by staff and students were also identified. Based on the findings it was recommended that government should introduce children school fees allowance in worker’s salary in tertiary institutions for ease of payment of school fees, government should subsidized the high cost of learning materials for tertiary institution students to help improve students’ academic performance, government should introduce free transportation system for staff and students in tertiary institutions to reduce the suffering of high cost of transportation among others.