Bhopal: Shocked by the declining pass percentage in Madhya Pradesh's high school examinations, state Education Minister Archana Chitnis has ordered a high-level probe to find out the reasons for the poor results, official sources said.

After reaching a record high of 57.88 pass percentage last year, only 35.33 percent of regular students passed the 2009 examination, conducted by the Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education (MPBSE).

The performance by private students was even more dismal, with only 8.9 percent of them passing, compared to 25.07 percent last year.

The probe committee has been asked to submit its report within a fortnight.

Soon after the declaration of results Saturday, Chitnis chaired a departmental meeting to find out the reasons for the poor show and even directed officials to initiate a process to exclude teachers engaged in board classes from election duty, an official present at the meeting told sources on condition of anonymity.

"The minister held election duty of teachers in both assembly (in 2008) and the current parliamentary elections responsible for the poor results. She said for the next year books had been made available in all government schools before the commencement of the session from April 1, and thus the results are expected to improve," the official said.

Chitnis is also said to have apprised Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan of her decision.

MPBSE secretary in charge Snehlata Srivastava straight away blamed the prolonged election process and insufficient training for teachers in accordance with the changed syllabi for the decline in the pass percentage.

"Teachers were asked to appear in different kinds of election-related training which largely affected regular studies in schools during the academic year when the course curriculum was changed and it seemed that teachers were not trained enough for dealing with these changes," she said.

However, a large number of school principals claimed the fall in pass percentage was due to the board's decision to permit students having less than 65 percent attendance to appear in exams.

Others like Nandkishore, a parent, attributed the interrupted power supply and lack of adequate number of teachers in schools for the poor show by students.

"Also, the session was curtailed so that fresh academic session could be started from April 1 (which did not happen) and this left little time to conduct regular classes which had already got disturbed due to assembly elections," he said. IANS