Minus plus-two at RKM Narendrapur

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">KOLKATA: It''s official. The Ramakrishna Mission-Narendrapur plus-two classes, which have developed the habit of filling up premier undergraduate educational institutions with its old boys, will cease to exist from the next academic session. <br /><br />At an extraordinary meeting with all school-leaving boys'' guardians on Thursday, the RKM brass said it would not be able to accommodate the plus two classes in the school functioning from the Narendrapur campus.A state government order has already told RKM that plus-two classes, which is part of the college set-up on the campus, cannot be held in the college any more (<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">TOI </span>reported this last October). <br /><br />The mission''s decision, therefore, means curtains on the plustwo section that has contributed heavily to top-notch educational institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology, the Indian Statistical Institute, Presidency College and other state-run engineering and medical colleges. <br /><br />Several guardians broke down as RKM-Narendrapur secretary Swami Asaktananda briefed them on the mission''s standpoint. Despite repeated entreaties from guardians,who could not help interrupting him a few times towards the end, the monk insisted that the mission did not have any option but to shut down the two classes. <br /><br />"It is not that we are shutting down the plus-two classes. The state government has ordered us (according to a September-2004 circular from the director of public instructions) not to keep the two classes in the college," he said. As guardian after guardian requested him to "somehow" accommodate the two classes in the school running from the same campus, Swami Asaktananda outlined several reasons why that was not possible.<br /><br /></div> </div>