The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will fight the upcoming local body elections, including BBMP, on the plank of education and healthcare, party leader Atishi Marlena said on Friday.
AAP is gearing up to contest elections to the BBMP that are yet to be announced, as well as the September 3 polls to Hubballi-Dharwad, Kalaburagi and Belagavi city corporations.
Speaking to DH, the AAP legislator said that the Covid-19 pandemic had deepened the gulf in learning among the “haves and have-nots,” setting back the education sector by a decade.
She batted for immediate measures to prevent long-term learning shortcomings among students due to the disruption in schooling.
“For students till 8th standard, a bridge course is essential when schools resume, so as to ensure that they know some key concepts required for further studies,” she said. Closure of schools had a major impact on learning and such courses will help children.
Education and healthcare are key issues for the party, which will go to the people assuring better facilities. AAP Karnataka president Prithvi Reddy noted that the educational reforms effected by the party in Delhi has ensured that the students of government schools consistently outperformed their counterparts in private schools.
“Such changes can be brought about in the education sector in Karnataka also,” he said. The economic distress caused by the pandemic has pushed several children out of schools. The state government has also failed to address the dispute between parents and school managements over fees, he said.
On communal sloganeering at Jantar Mantar, Marlena accused the BJP of diverting attention from key issues such as the government’s failure in handling the second wave of Covid-19.
“AAP is clear about the fact that any kind of politics of hatred against any caste or community is unconstitutional. This is the worrying direction that the country has taken. Instead of talking about education, healthcare and real challenges faced by the country, divisive politics is being pursued (by the ruling party BJP),” she said.