The purposes of this study are to describe the past and the present system of secondary education in Western Nigeria; to examine the goals, achievements, and failures with special consideration for three distinct periods: (1) prior to the arrival of the British people in Western Nigeria, (2) between 1842 and 1960, and (3) between 1960 and 1976; to formulate generalizations about secondary schools, and to offer suggestions for the improvement of the secondary educational system in Western Nigeria. One recommendation that the study makes calls for mass secondary education, not education of the elite only. The recommendations call for programs that would lead to industrial and technological progress.