A day after criticism from the Rising People’s Party regarding the delay in awarding the Chief Minister’s Meritorious Students’ Fellowship (CMMSF) to the top 50 students of the 2023 High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) examination, the Department of School Education (DoSE) on Wednesday announced that the felicitation for the top 50 rank holders of the HSLC 2023 and 2024 batches will occur shortly.
According to DoSE, the delay in conducting the felicitation program was due to the enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct during the Lok Sabha and ULB elections. With the lifting of these restrictions, the DoSE said that the felicitation for the top achievers will be felicitated shortly.
Highlighting previous instances, DoSE noted that the first batch of 55 achievers from the HSLC Examination 2019 were felicitated in person by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on January 31, 2020.
The second batch of 51 achievers received virtual felicitation in July 2021 due to pandemic restrictions. In a similar manner, recipients of the Chief Minister’s Meritorious Students Fellowship from the HSLC 2021 and 2022 batches, totalling 102 students, were honored by the Chief Minister in person on September 5, 2022, in Kohima.
The Chief Minister’s Meritorious Students Fellowship is an initiative by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio to assist and provide fellowship to the top 50 rank holders/individual performers in the High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) Examination conducted by the Nagaland Board of School Education. The fellowship provides a grant of Rs. 50,000/- (Rupees fifty thousand) per achiever in the first year, followed by an equal amount each year up to the 5th installment, subject to the candidates obtaining 80 percent and above marks in the promotion/annual/semester examinations of their higher studies.