English has been introduced as one of the languages in the secondary education curriculum and the students and teachers are struggling to find ways and means to achieve good performance among the students. The backwardness of students in English may be due to many factors and to identify such factors and to study the influence of these factors in relation to gender, type of management and locality the present study is taken up. The data was collected from 50 teachers using simple random sampling technic and the analysis revealed that non-introduction of English from the early classes, illiteracy of Parents, not having knowledge in basic skills(Listening, speaking, Reading and Writing), not having interest in poetry, rote learning method, using translation method, non-exposure of students to using English magazines and dictionary, non-conduct of comprehensive tests, lack of interest in non-mother tongue language are appeared to be major factors for the backwardness of students in English. The variables such as gender, type of institution, locality of the teachers didn’t influence the factors responsible for the backwardness of the students at secondary level.