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EFA Goal Three: Promoting Life Skills and Lifelong Learning 374.2 Assessing Life SkillsPresenter: Ko-Chih Tung, Regional Advisor, UNESCO Institute for StatisticsPrepared by: Garnett Russell, AIMS ResearcherThe 1990 Jomtien Declaration defined life skills as “essential learning tools and basiclearning content required by human beings to be able to survive, to develop their fullcapacities…to improve the quality of their lives…”A decade after, the 2000 Dakar Framework for Action revisited the definition, expandingthe life skills approach to include the acquisition of knowledge, values, attitudes andskills through the Four Pillars of Learning: learning to know, learning to do, learning tolive together and with others, and learning to be.For assessment purposes, life skills can be broken down by typology of skills into basicskills (e.g. reading/literacy, writing, arithmetic,speaking, understanding speech; walking,running, hearing, grasping, seeing, smelling,crying, etc.); psycho-social skills (e.g.problem solving, critical thinking, decisionmaking,inter-personal, communicating,negotiating, team work); and practical/contextual skills (e.g. income generation,technical/vocational, health, gender, family,environment, civic).Another useful framework for the analysis ofthe order of national priority in the provision oflife skills education and training is thehierarchy of values, starting from (1) biologicalsurvival; (2) physical material satisfaction;(3) social relation (4) self-realization.However, it is difficult to measure progresstowards this EFA goal at an internationallycomparable level since concepts anddefinitions differ between and often withincountries. Many countries still lack nationallyaccepted definitions, relying instead ondefinitions used by donor agencies. Becauseof this lack of clarity, models and frameworksare lacking at both the national andinternational levels.How to Measure, Assess, Monitorand Evaluate Life SkillsMeasuring life skills through:● Proxy indicators (qualitativeand quantitative)● Assessment surveys● Assessment of non-formaleducation programmes● Certifications of vocationalcompetencyAssessing life skills through:● Inputs – resources, teachers● Processes – teaching,training, learning methods● Outputs – skills, knowledge,attitudes, behaviour● Outcomes – confidence,sociability, influence, control● Impacts – survival, livelihood,peace, welfare, hygiene,health, participationMonitoring and evaluation of life skillsthrough:● Observation● Group discussions● Interviews● Questionnaires● Special reports on life skillsEducation for All: Reaching the Unreached