The study investigated the perception of principals on factors influencing access to secondary education, with a focus on Public Secondary Schools in Central Senatorial District of Ondo State, Nigeria. It adopted descriptive design. All the 107 Public Secondary Schools in the District constituted the main population while principals of the schools were targets. One question was raised and four hypotheses formulated for the study. A self-constructed questionnaire, validated and tested for reliability (r =0.80), was used to collect data, which were analysed using percentage, frequency count, mean and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Hypotheses were tested using chi-square statistic at 0.05 level of significance. It was found that many factors influenced access to secondary education, such as: inappropriate teaching method, unfavourable government policies, inadequate teachers, child ill health, among others. It was also revealed that home, school, and government factors significantly influenced access to secondary education while there was no significant difference in the perception of male and female principals, on factors influencing access. The study also recommend among others that Government should address the factors influencing access, through relevant policies and programmes; engage communities, homes and families in sensitization programmes towards discouraging them from culture, traditions and religious belief having negative influence on access to secondary education; as well as provide necessary infrastructural facilities for secondary schools, to enhance comfortability of students and teachers.