Obstacles to the integration of ICT in education: results from a worldwide educational assessment W.J. Pelgrum OCTO-University Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands Received 19 April 2000; accepted 22 May 2001 Abstract The main focus of this article is on the perceptions of educational practitioners (at the lower secondary level) regarding obstacles that seriously impede the realization of ICT-related goals of schools. The results are from a worldwide survey among national representative samples of schools from 26 countries. The article contains a short summary of the design of this project, a review of main indicators regarding ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) in elementary and lower secondary schools, main obstacles and an exploration of the co-variation between obstacles and contextual factors at the country-level. # 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Assessment; International comparisons; Indicators; Hardware; Computers; ICT; Internet 1. Introduction Over the past 5 years, one may observe the existence of a worldwide societal debate about the future of our societies and the potential implications for the goals and organization of our educational systems [for instance, European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT, 1997); Panel on Educational Technology (PCACT/PET, 1997)]. The information metaphor has triggered off a whole set of wild speculations about the necessity of educational reforms that will allow future citizens to survive in an information society. Expectations that were mentioned in several influential policy documents are shown in Table 1, reflecting a shift from the learner as passive consumer of educational offerings to an active knowledge gathering and productive participant in educational activities. It seems that the current belief is that ICT is not only the backbone of the Information Society, but also an important catalyst and tool for inducing educational reforms that change our students into productive knowledge workers.