Young people marching in Central yesterday demanded the resignation of the examination authority chief in the wake of the recent cheating scandal. Kong Kwai-sang, spokesman of the Youth Union which co-organised the march, said he was disappointed at the low turnout - about 20. Only about half were Form Five students affected by the exam blunders. The marchers called on Irving Koo Yee-yin, chairman of the Examinations and Assessment Authority, to apologise and step down for the authority's mistakes in recent years. The Youth Union and Youth-M, the two groups that organised the march, urged the government to form an independent committee, consisting mainly of teachers and students, to monitor the exam authority. They also suggested the grading of public exams be more transparent, such as the return of exam papers to students after releasing the results and making known the standards of assessment. The two groups reeled off a list of seven mistakes that the authority had made since 2003, including the loss of exam papers that year, the marking down of papers last year and the recent 'mishandling' of alleged mobile-phone cheating in the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination. Mr Kong said that although the authority had found no evidence of widespread cheating at the HKCEE English syllabus B reading paper, it should not have provided links to the websites, which were the source of the exam questions. Students had used their mobile phones during a 'toilet break' to access the sites. He added that the cheating incident showed there was too much emphasis on grades in the education system in Hong Kong. Mr Kong was 'a bit disappointed' about the low turnout, which he blamed on the weather, and lack of determination from students. The youths gathered at Chater Garden and marched to the Central Government Offices where they handed over their petition.