Teachers at a Co Tipperary national school held a one-day strike yesterday in protest at conditions in the building.
They were also protesting at the Government's failure to redesignate the school as one in a disadvantaged area.
St Kevin's School,in Littleton, five miles outside Thurles, had a chronic shortage of accommodation, a leaking roof and rotten windows, the principal, Mr Christy Clancy, said. It was built more than 40 years ago.
A refurbishment plan had made no progress since October, he claimed.
The strike, which was backed by the Irish National Teachers' Organisation, was also supported by the school's governing body.
Parents will stage a protest next Wednesday by withdrawing their children from the school.
St Kevin's, with 130-pupils and 11 teachers, was the only school in the State outside of urban areas to have protested on the ground of disadvantage status being withheld, Mr Clancy added.
The status, which allows for a lower pupil/teacher ratio, was promised last June, and on that basis the school had been allowed to keep a support teacher as a concessionary measure.
Mr Clancy said he was informed last week by the Department that the teacher post was being withdrawn.
The INTO president, Senator Joe O'Toole, who visited Littleton yesterday, said it was being ignored because it was a rural school,
"If Littleton National School was located in inner city Dublin it would have the necessary levels of support to deal with educational disadvantage," he said.
The Department of Education said it was committed to improving the school's accommodation, and the building project was going through an architectural planning stage.