Is the digital transition a lever for structural reforms or does it reinforce the divide?

Policy Study

Remote learning allowed 65 million EU students to continue studying. While millions of citizens were “traced, tracked and, eventually, treated” at a distance during the pandemic thanks to technological progress. But during the pandemic, digitalisation has shown that it can be a double-edged sword in light of this health crisis.

This policy study analyses the contribution of the Recovery and Resilience Facility to use technologies as a lever to improve access to public services, especially in healthcare and education. This is done by evaluating key metrics that show the coverage of these public services before and during the Covid-19 pandemic.  

For education, we evaluated the number of students dropping out without a diploma and the number of days schools closed during the pandemic. For healthcare, we assessed the unmet health needs and excess mortality rates during the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, we address how digitalisation plays a role in different member states for both sectors.  

This is followed by an analysis of the NRRPs regarding investments in both health and education, plus the way the plans invest in the digitalisation of these public services. The findings of the study point to a strong correlation between unmet health needs and student dropout rates. 

This policy study is part of the  Recovery Watch  series of publications. The  Recovery Watch  is a research that monitors the Recovery and Resilience Facility and assesses its social impact in different countries. 

Led by FEPS, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) and the Institut Emile Vandervelde (IEV), in collaboration with several first-rate research organisations.