Project – Effects of fuel subsidy removal on students class attendance and academic performance

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    Background to the Study

The attendance rate of the students in the class is important because students are more likely to succeed in their academic performance when they attend classes regularly. Teachers find it difficult to make their classes interactive and build students’ participation if a large number of students are frequently absent. In addition to falling behind in academics, students who are not in school on a regular basis are more likely to get low marks and believe that attendance is a baseline factor in determining student success (Ekeghe, 2017).

According to Ezeh (2012), fuel in Nigeria is an inelastic product both at demand and supply sides, which means that it is very difficult for consumers to find alternatives to the use of it in their daily lives. Alternatives such as electric trains, solar heaters and cookers are non- existent in Nigeria and hydropower and dams are not dependable sources of power in Nigeria. Fuel subsidy also affects all other factors influencing transport costs and transport rates.

According to Victoria and Zainab (2023),a subsidy can be described as a financial incentive provided by the government to a particular industry to reduce the price of its products and enhance its competitiveness. This support might be offered as a counteracting measure against the imposition of protective custom duties by the government of an importing country. One important objective of subsidy is to keep its prices below the cost of production. According to World Bank (2017), fuel subsidy is any policy by the government that is aimed at reducing the price of energy consumed by citizens relative to what the price would have been in the absence of such policy. Fuel subsidy is a government programme created to reduce how much Nigerians have to pay for petroleum motor spirit (PMS), automotive Gas Oil (Diesel), and to protect the citizens from crude oil volatility on the international market. The reality of subsidy is that as the pump price of fuel increases, invariably the cost of everything in Nigeria increases(Vandiver, 2011).

Therefore the essence of subsidizing the cost of pump price of fuel is to make the cost of living, production and services affordable to every Nigerian and as well maintain fairly good standard of living. The booby trap in fuel resource is that in one hand, it is one of the major sources of revenue generation for the federal government and on the other hand, it is through the subsidization of the pump price that the standard of living and well-being of Nigerians are enhanced. In this circumstance, any slight increase in the pump price of fuel without a palliative measure in place inflicts economic hardship on Nigerians and usually generates resistance and protest from the organized labour, civil society coalition and the masses in general. The reason being that the fuel subsidy is the principal way ordinary Nigerians benefit from the country’s oil wealth (Campell, 2011). The strength of relationship between fuel and production is weak because small proportion of fuel is used in production of most goods in Nigeria but the strength of relationship between fuel and transportation is very strong because it is used for distributional purposes which add to the final cost of goods produced.

Tertiary institutions in Nigeria today have ascribed great importance to class attendance with some institutions mandating above 70% attendance rate as criterion for writing semester examinations, while some make it a percentage of the continuous assessment. Others exhort lecturers to motivate students to attend lectures by all means. Students’ class attendance and engagement plays an important role in contemporary higher education. Several previous studies have shown that class attendance is an important determinant of academic outcomes: students who attend more classes earn higher final grades (Kirby and McElroy, 2003). However, differing results exist as well.

Absence from classrooms is an important problem in education. Non-attendance in class has become a norm, causing problems for students, the teaching staff, and education units, even though classrooms are a good place to transfer the professors’ experiences to students and understand university subjects. Frequent absence from or low attendance of students in the class can lead to academic failure and is a sign of students’ lack of interest and motivation toward the field of study (Mearman et al., 2014).

It is important that students have to attend and engage with the learning opportunities inside the classrooms to ensure that students feel the essence of being a student. Allen (2016) posited that class attendance is a way to succeed academically. However, he believes that from time to time students may need to miss a class. Since college classes have fewer sessions compared to high school, missing one class means missing more work.

Class attendance enhances class performance because through physical presence in the class, students can participate in all classroom activities. Class activities or guided learning activities given by the teacher usually help students to apply it on their final assessments. Another advantage of attending classes is that students can interact with their teacher. If there are some clarifications about the topic, students can ask questions which might be the same questions to all. So, going to the class enables students to learn from teacher and classmates. Asking questions to the teacher can provide students clear understanding of the topic which is missed out when absent from the class(Majekodunmi, 2013).

Attendance to the class also increases learning. Even some of the course works are done outside the classroom; these make class sessions even more valuable. In-class time is devoted to the most challenging discussions. It’s important to know what these are so that students can have a clear understanding of what is likely to show up on the final assessments. It is against this backdrop that this study aims at examining the effect of subsidy removal on students’ attendance and academic performance in Ondo West Local Government Area.

1.2    Statement of the Problem

The emergence of fuel subsidy removal across the nation has led to downgrades in many sectors and inflation in the price of commodities. The fuel subsidy removal has affected so many sectors which include agricultural sector, educational sector among others. The class attendance of tertiary institution has been greatly affected by this measures which can make a lot of student drop out of school. Cost of transportation has affected the rate of class attendance as student who stays far from school find it difficult to attend classes, most student who sponsored themselves to school finds it difficult to attend classes as they go for daily job to get themselves back to school, while some parents are finding it difficult to get fund to their children in the higher institution. All these are factors and effects of fuel subsidy on class attendance of student in tertiary institutions. There are series of problems and obstacles that contribute to the students’ academic performance.

1.3    Research Questions

The following research questions will be raised for the purpose of this study

1. What is the effect of fuel subsidy removal on students’ academic performance in Ondo West Local government?
2. What is the effect of fuel subsidy on student concentration in Ondo West Local Government?

• What is the effect of fuel subsidy removal on class attendance of student inOndo West Local government?

1.4    Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of the study is to examine the effects of fuel subsidy removal on students’ class attendance and academic performance in Ondo West Local Government Area. Specifically the study intends to;

1. determine the effects of fuel subsidy removal on student performance in Ondo West Local Government.
2. examine the effects of fuel subsidy on student concentration in Ondo West Local Government.

iii.        determine the effect of fuel subsidy removal on class attendance of student in Ondo West Local Government.

1.5    Research Hypotheses

H₀1: There is no significant relationship between the fuel subsidy removal and class attendance of student.

H₀2:   There is no significant relationship between the fuel subsidy removal and academic performance of student

1.6    Significance of the study

The effects of fuel subsidy removal on student class attendance in Adeyemi federal University of Education, Ondo will be of immense benefit to the students, general public and policy makers.

The study will enable student to understand the effect of subsidy removal on their class attendance and academic performance of such student. The study will be of benefit to the policy maker on the regulation of the price in order to help citizen and also to help other sector to be able to meet up to needs of the society through regularization. And it will also create awareness to the general public on diverse ways of saving and also engaging in trades to sustain their homes during the period of fuel subsidy removal.

1.7    Scope of the Study

The study tends to examine the effects of fuel subsidy removal on students’ class attendance and academic performance in Ondo West Local Government Area. The study will be carried out in some selected secondary schools in Ondo State. One hundred (100) students would be randomly selected in five (5)different secondary schools in Ondo West Local Government Area of Ondo State.

1.8    Definition of Terms

Subsidy: This can be defined as a financial incentive provided by the government to a particular industry to reduce the price of its products and enhance its competitiveness (Victoria and Zainab, 2023).

Fuel subsidy: This is a government programme created to reduce how much Nigerians have to pay for petroleum motor spirit (PMS), automotive Gas Oil (Diesel), and to protect the citizens from crude oil volatility on the international market(Bakare, 2012).

Class Attendance: This is the concept of proper record of student based on how they attended a class or lecture.

Academic performance:This is the product outcome portrayed by the students as a result of exposure to learning and training and has been usually articulated through grades (Martinez, 2007).

Project – Effects of fuel subsidy removal on students class attendance and academic performance