Armed men seen moving alongside displaced civilians following inter-communal violence in Tonj North County. Oct 2024. (-)

The National Examination Council (NEC) reported that over 40 pupils did not show up on Monday for the Certificate of Primary Education examination in Tonj North of Warrap State due to insecurity in the area.

Addressing the media, NEC Secretary General Simon Nyok Deng acknowledged the challenges of insecurity and severe floods that inundated many states in the country’s north.

Mr. Deng said despite the constraints, the government was able to supply examinations to all the 551 examination centres.

“You know that our country is facing a severe flood, but thank God we’ve been able to navigate our ways and ensure that the exams reach all the stations,” he said.

“As of yesterday, the exams have been kept at all the storage stations across the country. The report we got this morning is that all the children are ready to partake in the exams.”

He however stated that inter-communal violence in Tonj North might prevented 43 candidates from taking part in the primary-leaving exams as they did not report to the examination center.

He assured the country of timely update on the fate of the candidates by the end of November 18.

“This is with the exception of some of cases where we will account for by the end of the day is the absence of some candidates because of communal violence somewhere in Tonj North, in Warabi states.”

“We will make sure that all the candidates are reached, but we will have the full account by the end of today that all the candidates have shown up for exams.”

Nearly 80,000 pupils are sitting for the 2024 Certificate of Primary Examination across 551 examination centers in South Sudan – out of whom 35,735 are girls and 43,275 are boys.