Mr Stone has tabled a question for First Minister's question time on Thursday.

If it is accepted by presiding officer Alex Fergusson, Mr Stone will ask Mr Salmond how he intends to address "the poor physical condition of almost 1000 schools in Scotland, such as Wick High School"; he cannot restrict the question to one specific school.

The MSP has already flagged up the catalogue of defects in the building, which the parent council has condemned as "unfit for 21st-century education". Mr Stone produced a copy of the front page of the Caithness Courier in the Holyrood chamber earlier this month and called for a new school as "a fast-track priority".

He said yesterday that, if accepted, the question would allow him to further underline the plight of Wick High which is the worst school in his Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross constituency and one of the worst in Scotland.

He would then be able to press home his appeal for priority in the funding programme in a supplementary question.

The reference to 1000 schools which are in a bad condition was part of a finding in a report this week by Audit Scotland.

The spending watchdog said that despite £5.2bn having been spent already, or due to be spent, on buildings and fabric in the past eight years, almost a third of the country's schools remain in a poor or bad condition.

A gaping hole in a ceiling at Wick High is just one of the examples of disrepair at the school.

The report examines the progress of the pledge made in 2003 by the then Scottish Executive to improve Scotland's schools, saying much has already been achieved under the School Estate Strategy but that much more needs to be done.

Audit Scotland maintains that, at the present rate of progress, it could take "20 years or more" to make all schools suitable for 21st-century education.

Mr Stone, who is awaiting a written reply to a letter he sent to Mr Salmond on the issue, commented: "There is no way that Wick High is going to wait 20 years for a new replacement."

The school's parent council is drawing up a battle plan and has posted an online petition to enlist worldwide support from former pupils and other concerned individuals as a first step..

The campaign received a boost from two Highland and Islands MSPs, Mary Scanlon and Rob Gibson, who visited the school last Friday and threw their weight behind the efforts to improve or replace the buildings.

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