The study investigated the imperative for the availability of resources for managing functional secondary education in Rivers state, Nigeria. Two research questions guided the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey design and the population comprised all the 247 secondary schools with a total of 247 principals and 247 vice principals who served as the respondents. Stratified random sampling technique was used to draw 128 principals and vice principals as the sample size which is 25% of the total respondents. Questionnaire tagged "Availability of Resources for Managing Functional Secondary Education Questionnaire" (ARMAFEQ) was the instrument used for data collection developed by the researcher. The instrument comprised two sections A & B. Section A comprised demographic data while section B comprised the questionnaire items based on the variables of the study and was based on four points likert type scale of SA (4 points), A (3 points), D (2 points) and SD (1 point). Mean and standard deviation were the statistical instruments used for data analysis. The findings revealed that resources enhance functional basic education in the following ways; promotes understanding of subject matter, makes teaching and learning clearer, improves skills and knowledge among students, improves quality of teaching, improves teachers effectiveness etc. It also revealed that the level of availability of resources in schools for achieving managing functional secondary education in Rivers state, Nigeria generally is low. It was concluded that achieving a functional education in the face of poor availability of resources is a mirage and therefore recommended among others that the government should adequately fund the educational sectorand parents and community leaders should be involved in the provision of material resources in schools through donations and contributions.