PARADIP: Even as school education in Jagatsinghpur district has been hit for lack of adequate number of teachers, the students are now facing acute scarcity of books. On Tuesday, hundreds of schoolchildren and their parents locked the Patita Paban Upper Primary Nodal School at Amberi under Tirtol block protesting non-availability of books and a large number of vacancies in teacher posts. Around 1.40 lakh students are studying in 1,617 primary schools and the requirement of books is 7.40 lakh but the Mass Education Department has supplied only one lakh books. The angry parents said that their agitation would continue till their demands of appointment of teachers and provision of books are met. They alleged that the school runs classes from I to VII. But there are only four teachers for around 300 students. District project coordinator of Sarva Siksha Abhiyan Nirmal Dash said steps were being taken to provide the books at the earliest.