Postcard from... Renk

The classrooms that were half-empty weeks earlier are full once again now that the rocket fire has died.

But at this convent school in Renk in South Sudan’s Upper Nile state, the impact of the country’s 17-month civil war can still be felt.

The age of pupils is the most obvious sign. Some are many years older than their peers, having missed much of their education because of the war.

Sister Lucia Disconti, who runs the school, says one youth of 18 has just registered to join a class of 10-year-olds. Other pupils are as old as 20. Other effects of the fighting, which began in December 2013 following a rift between President Salva Kiir and his deputy Riek Machar two years after the country gained independence, are less visible. “Some children went to the militias,” says Sister Lucia. “We don’t know what they saw, whether they killed people.”

At least there is education here. Other government schools have closed for lack of teachers. Class sizes of 80 or more and the limited higher education provision in South Sudan present further obstacles.

Back in one of the convent school’s classrooms, one girl says she wants to be a doctor. She is obviously bright, but the obstacles may prove unsurmountable.