Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) examinations have continued in Nyirol County, Jonglei State, despite an airstrike by the army hitting a school compound on Wednesday morning.
Local education authorities confirmed the incident, which caused panic but no deaths among students.
Jacob Ter Muon, the county education director, told Radio Tamazuj that examinations were briefly interrupted in the town of Lankien but resumed shortly afterwards.
“The school compound was hit by an airstrike in Lankien, Nyirol County, on Wednesday morning,” Ter said. “It is by the grace of God that no one was killed. The injured person happened not to be a student but a young girl from the nearby community.”
He clarified that English language exams continued on Wednesday and that geography and physics papers proceeded as scheduled on Thursday morning, albeit amidst fear.
Ter expressed concern that the incident would affect the candidates’ performance and questioned why government forces would target a learning facility during a nationally sanctioned exercise.
Peter Gatkuoth Koang, the SPLM-IO-appointed commissioner for Nyirol, also confirmed exams had resumed normally on Thursday.
He described the security situation as “relatively calm” following the airstrike and called for restraint.
The South Sudanese government has not yet commented on the incident.
Nyirol County, largely controlled by the SPLM-IO, has recently experienced intermittent aerial bombardment by the SSPDF.