The study examined the management of secondary education for functional leadership, values re-orientation and sustainable national development in Nigeria. The descriptive survey design was adopted. The population comprised 142 principals of public junior and senior secondary schools in Edo Central Senatorial District of Nigeria. The entire population was used. The questionnaire was used for data collection and was validated by experts. The test-re-test reliability method was used and a reliability coefficient of 0.76 was obtained. The mean and percentage were used for data analysis. The study found that corruption, poor funding, get-rich quick syndrome among the youths, cultism, poor management of resources by school administrators, poor quality of teaching staff, low quality leadership by school heads, teachers being poor role model, lack of parental support in the area of students’ discipline and political instability were problems affecting management of the education system. It was recommended that the curriculum of the school should be re-adjusted and premium placed on values and dignity in hard work and that the quality of the teachers and instructors must be enhanced through in-service training.