A popular sport for many young people has been completely removed from GSCE and A Level PE resulting in growing anger from students, parents, and instructors.

Martial arts has been dropped from the list of options that students can choose to study and submit as evidence to pass.

Taekwondo Instructor Zoe Tizick has set up a petition, which has already gained over four thousand signatures, to challenge this decision made by the Department for Education.

"The reason that Taekwon-Do and other martial arts were removed is that when they were reviewed, they were found not to meet point 5 - It needs to be easy to assess by teachers and moderators," she said. 

Some of the sports available to study range from football and rugby to some less mainstream activities such as horse riding, windsurfing, Gaelic football, and sailing.

Maria Holloway, who's 12-year old son has been training in martial arts since he was five, has expressed her concern over the sport's removal. 

"This makes a huge difference to my son getting a really good GCSE pass to not taking GCSE PE at all. That can affect his whole future. 

"He’s massively aware that this is unfair. It’s insane that this isn’t on the GCSE list. We need to make a difference to the thousands of young people this impacts."

Click here to sign the petition.