This is definately one of the many problems of education in the developing world. I first went to Africa in 2003 as a Peace Corps volunteer, where I taught math and physics in Cameroon. I was given a box of chalk and an eraser as my only supplies. Almost no children had books, only notebooks and pens/pencils. You cannot ask kids to read a chapter and do the assignments in the book, you have to write everything on the board. Quite tricky.