The lead article in The Sunday Gleaner is truly disheartening yet frightening to say the least.

According to the story, more than half of the students who left secondary school last year in Jamaica passed no subjects and have no skills.

Statistics such as these are a signal of the direction in which we as a nation are heading, as if the troubles which plague us are not enough.

Without a doubt, education plays a vital role in any society and its development, so to think that more than half of our young people, our future, lack educational achievement, raises a number of question signs and red flags.

Something needs to be done and now!

In a nutshell, this simply means that our young people will not be able to contribute to the building of the society in a positive way.

According to the story, a large number of our youths are not certified for further education or job and it also mentioned that data published by the Planning Institute of Jamaica indicated that prisons are being overrun by poorly educated persons.

Surely, there are a number of issues that bring about these dreadful details.

Nevertheless, it is time for those who have been selected to lead the country to devise and implement drastic ways to combat these issues.

Too much time is being wasted sitting around.