Measuring Life Skills and Citizenship Education (LSCE)
Field Trial Report: Assessment Instruments, Strengthening education systems through evidence on life skills across the MENA region
Overview
The Life Skills and Citizenship Education (LSCE) Initiative is a transformative programme supporting countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to equip young people with the skills needed to learn, work and engage as active citizens.
This Field Trial Report presents the development and validation of a comprehensive set of assessment instruments designed to measure 12 core life skills among lower secondary students (Grades 7–8). The instruments provide countries with practical tools to generate system-level evidence and inform education reforms.
Why it matters
Across the MENA region, education systems face increasing pressure to respond to challenges related to learning outcomes, youth unemployment and social cohesion.
Measuring life skills is critical to:
- Understand how young people are equipped for the future
- Identify gaps across education systems
- Inform targeted policy and programme interventions
- Strengthen pathways from learning to earning
This report provides:
- A validated set of 12 assessment instruments aligned with the LSCE framework
- Evidence from field trials conducted in Egypt, the State of Palestine and Tunisia
- Insights into innovative measurement approaches, including situational judgement tests (SJTs)
- Guidance on instrument design, implementation and analysis
- Recommendations to support national adoption and scale-up
Key features
- MENA-focused design: Instruments adapted to regional contexts and realities
- Innovative methodology: Integration of behavioural and self-report measures
- Robust validation: Two-phase field trials and rigorous statistical analysis
- Policy relevance: Designed for system-level use by ministries of education
Partners
The LSCE assessment instruments were developed through a partnership between:
- UNICEF
- International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA)
- University of Roehampton
- National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER)
Looking ahead
The LSCE assessment instruments provide a foundation for countries to generate actionable data on life skills and strengthen education systems to better support young people’s transition to learning, skilling and decent work.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Developing measures of twenty-first-century life skills to support the redevelopment of the education system in the Middle East and North Africa region
The Life Skills and Citizenship Education (LSCE) initiative is a transformative, UNICEF-led programme aimed at enhancing educational outcomes, employment prospects and the civic engagement of young people in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, by fostering the development of 12 twenty-first-century life skills.
Recognizing the roles of measurement and assessment as key features of transforming the education system, UNICEF (in collaboration with the University of Roehampton, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement [IEA] and the National Foundation for Educational Research [NFER]) developed 12 assessment instruments to measure the 12 life skills from the LSCE framework.