Mei-Ling Chang

Block 1
Expos 2
Expos Writing Commentary #4; Week 4

The general argument made by Eduardo Porter in the article More in School, but
Not Learning is that although the enrollment for students in education school
system has increased in countries facing poverty, children are not learning and
benefiting from school. First he states that Despite this phenomenal advance,
however, a peek under the headline statistics suggests that much of the world has,
in fact, progressed little. If the challenge was to provide a minimum standard of
education for all, what looks like an enormous improvement too often amounted to
a stunning failure. . In addition, Porter claims that Aiming resources at expanding
access will probably be fruitless without an understanding of what a quality
education means. And without some clear, measurable standards laying out the
skills that must be achieved, the strategy is likely to fall short again. To support this
idea, he specifically writes, It is not surprising that the world settled for targets on
the quantity of education but skimped on quality, which is not only difficult to
deliver but also more contentious and harder to measure. According to what Porter
has said in the quote, what he assumes is that the UN only targeted to increase the
number of students receiving education but is not focusing on the beneficiary part
of education and if the student is understanding what he or she is learning. Also he
quotes in his article, Universal education is an agenda with no opposition; it offers
free services and swells public employment, said Justin Sandefur of the Center for
Global Development. Quality is a little more politically contentious. Basically the
essence of the of Porters argument is that if we dont do something about the
quality of the education that are given to students in poor developed countries, the
free education that they are receiving will be pointless .

In my view, Porters argument is valid because a child that goes to school with a
low quality of education shouldnt be there because they are not learning in the first
place. I can except that Porter claim that Achieving quality will be tough and more
expensive., although I question whether her statement is true. For instance, If the
UN can invest all their money to build these schools, we need educated teachers to
teach which might not happen in undeveloped countries. While Porters argument
has some merit, it would be stronger if she considered that some students there
might have a learning problem and hard time focusing in class. Although this topic
might seem relevant to a select group politicians, it should in fact matter to anyone
concerned about the issues of quality of education.

Works Cited Page

Porter, Eduardo. "More in School, but Not Learning." The New York Times. The New
York Times, 12 May 2015. Web. 14 May 2015.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/13/business/economy/as-global-number-ofpupils-soars-education-falls-behind.html?ref=education>.

Vocabulary

Pedagogical (Noun): of, relating to, or befitting a teacher or education

-I am receiving a high education at a pedagogical progressive high school.
-High quality pedagogical education is very hard to come by.
Only word that I did not understand.