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EFA Goal Three: Promoting Life Skills and Lifelong Learning 354EFA Goal Three: Promoting Life Skills andLifelong Learning4.1 Identification of IssuesPresenter: Ko-Chih Tung, Regional Advisor, UNESCO Institute for StatisticsLife skills training is not new, as our forefathers and mothers, and as parents of virtuallyall animals, have been engaging in the training of the young to cope with life since timeimmemorial. What is new is the official recognition and articulation of the importance oflife skills in the conscientious and systematic provision of education and training of theyoung. This renewed emphasis on the traditional role of education as a socializationprocess is a reaction toward the long neglect and the fact that it has been crowded outof the curricula in competition with other agenda of political importance, especiallyduring the nation- and state-building phases of our countries, when we were taughtmore to dedicate our lives to serve the interests of religion and the state; and lessabout our own needs and how we can promote our individual and family welfare andprosperity.We live in a much changed and rapidly changing world. What used to be the wisdomof our forefathers and mothers – their knowledge, values and norms of behaviour havebecome more difficult to apply as guidelines for our young, as they face differentchallenges in life in the changed world, brought about by the decline of the ruralagricultural economy, migration, urbanization, mass communication, commercialization,market expansion, globalization, etc.Hence, the entire society is facing an enormous task of transforming itself to cope andhopefully to prosper in the new environment. The role of the non-formal education isaptly symbolized in the use of the expression “flexy learning” during the openingceremony of a Community Learning Centre in Bali, Indonesia. Indeed, non-formaleducation has the potential to become a learner-centred and learner-needs drivensub-sector of education.Goal 3 of the Dakar Plan for Action for EFA is to ensure that children, adolescents andadults have access to “appropriate learning and life skills programmes.” Goal 6emphasizes the need to ensure quality and measurable outcomes of education,including that of life skills training.Education for All: Reaching the Unreached