THE fact that thousands of teenagers are having to re-sit their English GCSE is nothing short of a debacle.

Whatever the political row behind the scenes, the Government’s aims and the issue of changing the thresholds for grades mid-year, those pupils have been badly let down.

They studied all year and prepared themselves to be at their best on exam day. They were working to a certain understanding of how best to achieve the results they needed.

Yet some politicians and education mandarins ripped the rug out from beneath them.

Any changes or adjustments should not have been made until a new academic year and a different set of students.

And who is it that bears the results of this? Whose plans for the future have been steered off course?

We have thousands of children facing the prospect of re-sitting their exams. We wish them all the luck in the world because, no matter how hard they cram, there is a serious danger they will go in to this second round of exams deeply stressed.