Abstract
Educational stakeholders are concerned about the functionality of secondary education, as many secondary school graduates, particularly in rural areas, lack basic skills for work and daily life. Therefore, this study investigated the contributions of policy, access, and resource factors to the functionality of secondary education in rural communities of Southwestern Nigeria. The study was conducted within a positivist paradigm and employed a descriptive survey design. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 600 secondary school graduates for the study. Two hypotheses were formulated and tested. Four research instruments, namely the Secondary School Graduate Aptitude Test (SSGAT), Policy Factor Questionnaire (PFQ), Secondary School Graduate Access Questionnaire (SSGAQ), and Resource Factor Questionnaire (RFTQ), were utilised with reliability coefficients of 0.715, 0.733, 0.753, and 0.853, respectively. Data were analysed using inferential statistics such as multiple regression. The policy, access, and resource factors made significant joint contributions to the functionality of secondary education (F (3, 597) = 266.740; Adjusted R2 = 0.571) and accounted for 57.1 percent of its variance. The policy factor (?= 0.451) and resource factor (?=0.374) made relative contributions to the functionality of secondary education, while the access factor (?= 0.084) did not. The study suggests that urgently addressing policy and resource issues is critical for restoring the functionality of secondary education and improving access to it in rural areas.