May 31: The 2006 Orissa high school certificate examination, whose results were announced this morning, registered the highest pass percentage in eight years. But at the same time, it also saw a rise in the number of schools where not a single student could pass as well as cases of malpractice.

A pass tally of 56.4 per cent, an improvement over 2005?s 55.66 per cent and 52.54 per cent the year before, was not good enough to make the school education bosses in Orissa smile as they were more concerned about the 135 ?zero result? schools. Last year the figure was 105.

Nil or zero result is officialspeak for schools where not a single student has secured pass marks. Around 2.98 lakh students from 7,018 schools had appeared for the exam.

Malpractice was more common this time with the board receiving 3,202 complaints against 2,977 last year and 1,991 in 2004.

Also on the list of school and mass education minister Bishnu Das?s concerns is the dropping pass percentage in Oriya ? 81.17 per cent in 2005 to 78.08 this year ? and English ? 62.51 per cent to 59.76 per cent.

Das sought a report from the board and his department on the nil result schools within a fortnight and warned that action would be taken against teachers if they were found ?guilty? of not doing their job properly.

Also, schools with zero results could be derecognised, he added.

The minister noted that lack of motivation, poor infrastructure and manpower problems are primarily responsible for the results.

On the use of unfair means, Das said the detection of more such cases this year could be attributed to the adoption of stringent enforcement measures.

The board officials said 167,290 students passed the exam this year, of whom 37,237 secured first division marks, 64,855 second and 65,102 third.

The success rate was the highest in Dhenkanal (76.98 per cent), Kendrapada (70.34 per cent) and Balasore (67.01 per cent). Gajapati district, on the other hand, fared the worst with 35.05 per cent.

Suryasnata Tripathy of Nuabazar High School, Cuttack, emerged on top with a seven-year best score of 724 out of 800.

Students from the districts of Balasore, Berhampur, Cuttack, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Keonjhar and Khurda (Bhubaneswar) occupied the top 10 slots of the official merit list.