Although Municipality Public Relations Officer Elizabeth Sibindi would not confirm the amount in arrears, officials at the school had written it down as exactly N$1, 612 567.16.

Pupils were sent home an hour early yesterday, while more than 200 pupils living in the hostel, and who had family nearby, vacated the premises throughout the day.

"It's a bad situation," said an official at the hostel.

"There's no water for bathing or for cooking.

It's not just students; there are lecturers affected as well," the official said.

Two matrons at the school each donated 50 litres of water yesterday afternoon, so that students could have dinner cooked last night.

However, toilets were found plugged and students were forced to carry buckets of water from a tap near the soccer field to clean themselves and brush their teeth.

"The superintendent said yesterday that Government owes the municipality around N$1 million, but we don't know anything else," said a Grade 12 pupil on his way to his parents' home in Windhoek.

The school principal, Beatrice Losper, declined to comment on the situation yesterday, only saying that she was taking care of the situation.

"We don't want you to write anything," she said.

"We're trying to better the school's image and this will be an embarrassment.

This is a school problem."

Gert Katzao, Acting Director for the Ministry of Education's Khomas Education Directorate, denied any knowledge of the school being in arrears.

But he added that, if there's anything amiss, they would handle it.

But an amount of N$1,6 million, he said, could not be correct.

"Sometimes these things get counted wrong," he said.

Pupils were worried that the incident occurred just one week before the Grade 10 and Grade 12 exams, which start on October 3 and 5.

"We pay our school and hostel fees, and we're not expecting this," said one.

Some of the pupils said they might go home instead of waiting for exams to start.

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