The purpose of this study was to examine the situation of internal efficiency inrnsecondary schools of Guji zone, identify the major factors behind low schoolrninternal efficiency and to suggest possible solutions. A descriptive surveyrnresearch method was applied. This involved an investigation of trends of internalrnefficiency and factors that affect it in one way or another. The study wasrnconducted in 5 secondary schools selected using simple random samplingrntechnique. The subjects of the study were 495, out of which 310 of them werernstudents selected using simple random sampling, and the remaining 133, 2 1,rn15, 10, and 6 of them were teachers, PTA members, parents, school principalsrnand educational experts respectively selected using purposive sampling. Datarnwere collected through questionnaire; a semi structured interview with parents; arnfocus group discussion with PTA members and document analysis. The datarnobtained were interpreted and analyzed using various statistical tools such asrnpercentage, mean, standard deviation and ANOVA. Results that emerged fromrnthis study indicated that the average drop out and repetition rates for grade 9rnduring the five years under consideration were 17.4 percent and 15.3 percentrnrespectively and similarly the average secondary school dropout and repetitionrnrates were 12.65 percent and 11.2 percent respectively. In addition the resultrnreveals that the problem with drop out and repletion rate is worse in boys than inrngirls. Moreover, results of this study indicated that the students experiencernseveral barriers to learning that are related to teachers, student themselves,rnschool system, socio-economic, socio-cultural, and school management, whichrncould cause them either to drop out of school or repeat grades. This includesrnfactors such as students' lack of effort to study hard, low self conception, lack ofrninterest in education and low future success in education, lack of teachersrnencouragement of students' performance and shortage of teachers, overcrowdedrnclass rooms and lacle of school facilities, poor school management and poorrnschool community relationship, school distance and the need for child labor, andrnpeer group initiation. Due to these factors secondary education of the zone isrnleaving behind about a quarter of its students every year. On the basis of thesernfindings, taking the societies's settlement condition into account before openingrnnew secondary school, early identification and targeting of learners at risk ofrneither dropping out of schools or repeating grades, organizing workshops,rnevaluating students' performance continuously, and training more teachers onrnthe basis of school needs are forwarded as recommendations to alleviate thernproblem of low secondary school internal efficiency in the zone.