Parents yesterday kept their children at home from a Gaeltacht school in west Kerry for the day, in protest at the planned withdrawal of a teacher by the Department of Education from next September.
And in a departure from the usual schools protests, where the poor building conditions are often the issue, parents in Scoil Cheann Trá (Ventry) are telling the minister to ignore the state of the the 1913 building, but to "leave us the teacher".
The Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, told parents that an administrative decision had been taken that where schools had accommodation difficulties, applications should be made in the first instance to the Department's planning and building section to address accommodation needs, rather than sanction a teaching post.
The four small classrooms have been deemed inadequate for the school's 80 pupils.
As a result, the temporary teaching post, sanctioned in 2001 when there were 73 pupils, was withdrawn.
The Department now wants parents to apply for a prefab to relieve cramped conditions. "For a change, we are asking the Department not to spend this money on our school, and to allow the situation to continue as it is for another year," spokeswoman Ms Elaine Garvey said. By September there will be 83 pupils and by 2004 there will be enough pupils on the roll to entitle the school to a fourth teacher, she said.
A new prefab, minus a teacher, will mean one large class and two smaller classes and thousands of euro spent.
"It's quite simple. The teacher was appointed at 73 [pupil numbers]. They are taking her away at 83 [pupil numbers]," Ms Garvey said, adding the parents would do whatever it took to retain their fourth teacher.