Parents of children attending a Co Offaly national school have threatened to withdraw their children from the school because of the "Dickensian conditions".
Charleville National School, a Church of Ireland school on Henry Street, Tullamore, consists of buildings some 200 years old and prefabs which are up to 30 years old.
The roofs of two of the prefabs are leaking and buckets are left in one classroom to collect the drips. The roof of the staffroom is also leaking.
The school's board of management fears the condition of the three-teacher school will have an adverse affect on enrolment.
It issued a statement this week in which it said the school was promised a new building by the Department of Education in 1998.
"On various occasions we have been verbally assured that we were top of the list for the provision of a new school," the statement said.
"We were later told that it would be going for planning permission early in the New Year, presumably early 2001.
"All progress now seems to be stalled - there has been no movement for the last six to nine months. The board of management is gravely concerned that the project is at a standstill. The prefabs are now in a perilous state with leaking roof and water coming through light fittings.
"Parents are very agitated and are likely to withdraw children. Dickensian conditions cannot be tolerated in the 21st century," the statement added.
"Until recently the members of the board of management have been led to believe that the development was progressing smoothly. From our last communications with the Department this appears not to be the case. The board regrets that the Department of Education does not see fit to keep them informed on a regular basis as to the state of the project.
"Any information received by the board of management has been as a result of queries from them." The chairman of the board of management, Rev Gerald Field, said the Department had asked the school to get estimates for roof repairs but it was a new school which was required.
"Parents are starting to vote with their feet. We have 51 children in the school at the moment and the Department of Education agree we are in a catch 22 situation. We have to keep up our numbers to keep our three teachers but how can we keep them when parents see the condition of the school," he asked. School principal, Ms Olga Farrell, said a petition signed by the parents had been sent to several politicians.
In it they demanded to know why "apparently very little if any progress" had been made since agreement was received from the Department to fund the building of a new school almost three years ago.
A spokesman for the Department of Education said yesterday the Office of Public Works was still actively working on the acquisition of a site for the new school. He added that the architectural planning of the replacement school was progressing.
"The school has been told that we will look at any proposals in relation to the refurbishing of the existing school while the planning of the new school is ongoing and we are awaiting proposals from them in that regard," he said.