Calcutta, June 25 :    Calcutta, June 25:  Two schools run by the Ramakrishna Mission, which suffered near-persecution by the state government for not conforming to its education policy, reaffirmed their class by bagging the first and ninth positions in the 1999 Madhyamik examinations. Releasing a provisional merit list of 17 toppers, the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education announced that Suman Karmakar of the mission-run school at Baranagore had stood first scoring 761 out of 800. Subhabrata Nandy of the Rahara Ramakrishna Mission Boys? Home scored 748 to bag the ninth position. Board president Chittaranjan Bandopadhyay said the pass percentage for 1999 was 68.94, slightly down from last year?s 69.47 per cent. An estimated 549,000 boys and girls from nearly 15,000 institutions sat for the examinations held in March. Last year, the ruling communists had mounted a full-scale attack on the RK Mission schools at Baranagore and Rahara for teaching English at the primary level in defiance of the state government?s controversial, and now dead, fiat and for not replacing their monastic heads with government-recruited teachers. When the schools did not buckle under threats, the government tried to bludgeon them into submission by stopping financial assistance. Riding on popular support, the monks ran the primary sections of the two schools in tune with the mission?s philosophy and ideals. The schools run directly by the state education department covered themselves with glory, too, as eight of the 17 toppers on the provisional merit list belonged to them. Avinandan Banerjee of St Xaviers? Collegiate School and Chetana Chaudhuri of Malda Chintamoni Chamatkar Girls? High School jointly stood second with 760 marks. Chetana also topped among female candidates. Arnab Sen (758) of Hooghly Collegiate School obtained the third position, while Ridhi Deb, a pupil of Bidhannagar High School and daughter of CPM legislator Rabin Deb, stood fourth with 756 marks. Schools will start distributing the mark-sheets from tomorrow. A first division holder with 580 and above marks will qualify for the national scholarship, for which an application will have to be made in prescribed forms within 30 days from the announcement of results.