Edu-leaders

EDU: How do you compare design education in India to that in other countries?

A: Design education in India started in the early 60s with the setting up of NID. It had a head start with amazing inputs from established design masters with equally amazing visionary founders who helped place Indian design education on the world map quite firmly. However, I do believe we are losing ground to many countries that have made investments and policies to support design education and practice an integral part of their national development policies—something that India is now found lacking in.

Q: What do you think are the problems that plague the successful dissemination of design education in our schools?

A: I would say lack of vision and a lack of public awareness about what design is and what it can do for a developing economy and a society in rapid transition. They are hampering design education.

Q: Please tell us about the approach followed at NID when you were associated with it.

A: In the early years, NID used an open-ended form of exploration and learning from international masters. In later years, its internal faculty innovated many courses and educational procedures that have set them apart from the rest of the great design schools. This was recognised abroad but not in India. The core value systems and the educational and work ethic that was embraced by NID faculty and students, opened up many new avenues for design action that the world had yet to recognise as valid areas for design.

There was definitely an ideological bias for development and socio-economic change at the grassroots level that stood NID offerings in good stead. However, in recent years this emphasis has somehow been lost and the focus seems to have shifted to the superficial aesthetic. This is rather unfortunate.

Q: Do you think the National Design Policy, announced in 2007 to enhance design and design-related education in India, has helped further the cause?