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In the following sections I shall discuss the gradual evolution of political parties over the last half a century focusing primarily on Bangladesh. The discussion will begin with a broad overview of political parties highlighting the changing party systems and key features of political parties. I shall then centre my discussion on the roles of political parties, in mobilizing people for social and political movements as well as for participating in electoral politics which is geared towards capturing state power. The final section analyses the role of political parties in promoting democracy. I explore these roles because they are the most visible, discussed, and debated roles of parties in Bangladesh. The involvement of political parties in movement politics on the one hand and electoral politics on the other has left deep and sometimes contradictory imprints on the character of political parties. I shall highlight some of the key features of parties which originate from their involvement in movement politics as well as in electoral politics. In the final section I try to sum up how parties have performed in promoting democracy within their our organizations and outside in the country as a whole.

But expanding school enrollment with quality education remains a big challenge for us as is the case in India. We too have seen the gradual development of disparity between public schools delivering poor quality education to children from low income households and private schools providing better quality education to children from upper income households. We also have the divide between the vernacular medium schools and the English medium schools which are now attracting students not simply from upper middle income households but from middle and lower income households. We have the added challenge of rapid expansion of madrassa education where children from extremely poor households go because they can get free room and board. We face similar challenges of governance – lack of monitoring and accountability. Absenteeism of teachers, despite increase in salary, is a persistent problem. Professional bodies such as teachers' associations are preoccupied with demands for increasing teachers' salaries and do not pay much attention to issues concerning improvement of quality of education. However, despite our past experiences of being disappointed with the inadequacies of public policy responses, we still look forward to policies and actions from the state to address the myriad problems we face in the education sector. After all in a democracy such as India and Bangladesh citizens should be able to reasonably expect that public policies and actions will be geared towards improving the quality of education of the majority of the electorate. So some of the recent initiatives of the government of India such as the Right to Education Act, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhijan (RMSA), integration of Sarva Shiksha Abhijan (SSA) with RMSA and Teacher Training, and Integrated Scheme for School Education are very welcome news indeed. I look forward to learning more about the efficacy of these initiatives from your deliberations. After India passed the Right to Education Act in 2009, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) organized a seminar in Bangladesh and invited some of the Indian experts including Professor Govinda, in order to create an opportunity for them to share Indian experiences with Bangladeshi experts and our own minister of education in the hope that we can learn some lessons from India. In that spirit I am participating in this seminar in Delhi today and hope to carry back some lessons about what to do and what not to do in Bangladesh.

Contributed articles on Bangladesh's social, economic, and political developments during the past three decades

The paper highlights key challenges facing the Government of India's welcome initiative of Universalisation of Secondary Education. The challenges identified are in five areas: political will and social commitment, policy design and implementation, quality, inequality and governance. Five broad questions are raised for deliberation and debate. First, how adequate is the level of political will and social commitment to universalise secondary education? Second, how realistic and implementable are this designs of the recent initiatives announced by the Government of India? Third, are the planned measures to improve the quality of education adequate to produce the desired outcomes? Fourth, are the recommended interventions to reduce inequality likely to produce equitable outcomes by 2020? And finally, are the measures planned by the initiatives to improve governance sufficient and appropriate?

During the past decade, there has been a noticeable reduction of maternal mortality in Bangladesh, in part because of government policy and program initiatives. Of particular note is the comprehensive reproductive health strategy adopted in 1996 under the country's first Health and Population Sector Strategy and the 5-year Health and Population Sector Programme (1998–2003). The latter includes actions in most of the areas recommended in the World Health Organization's 2004 report, Reproductive Health Strategy to Accelerate Progress Towards the Attainment of International Development Goals and Targets. After assessing Bangladesh's achievements and challenges in the design and implementation of a maternal health strategy, I concluded that mobilizing and nurturing political will is the key to sustaining policy commitment to comprehensive reproductive health.

The year 2003 saw a continuation of the confrontational politics that has plagued Bangladesh for decades. Partisanship continued to affect the functioning of government and civil society organizations. Controversy emerged over judicial appointments to the higher courts. The government's successes were marred by corruption and deteriorating law and order.

The year did not bring any improvement in the way government and politics function in Bangladesh. Murder, intimidation, suppression, and harassment of political opponents worsened the atmosphere of vendetta and violence that has marked the country's politics in the past few decades. To tackle the deteriorating law and order situation, the government called in the army in October. The administration appeared to be adrift, caught in factional feuds within the ruling coalition. There were also signs of dynastic succession within the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party. The economy did not register any significant improvements. Relations with Pakistan improved but Indo-Bangladesh relations hit their lowest point in decades. Citizen disenchantment with political leaders continued to grow.