Design Education in India-Retrospection, Introspection, and Perception

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I.S. Mathur (1943-2014) completed his postgraduate studies in Visual Communication (Short Films) from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. Later, as a faculty at NID, Mathur established the disciplines of Animation Film Design, and Short Films & Television for both graduate and postgraduate studies. During his tenure, he held various positions as Chairman, Faculty of Visual Communication and Chairman, Design Services. He was also a member of NID's Governing Council.

His film, Jal Shakti, was honoured with the Special Jury Award at the National Film Festival in 1984 by the then President of India, Mathur was also awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Award for Professional Excellence in 1997 for his contribution to education in the fields of animation, filmmaking, and television. Mathur's long and illustrious career was further enriched when he became Fellow, Ravi J. Matthai Design Research Chair for Innovation in Design Education at NID in 2011. He worked extensively on his chosen area of research-'Designing the Curriculum and Methodology for Training of the Trainers for Design Education' and made significant contributions to the same.

The National Institute of Design (NID) celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 2011. Over the years, the institute has emerged as the pioneer of design education in India through its innovative research and academic practices. A significant honour for the institute came about in July this year when the Central Government declared NID an Institute of National Importance.

In order to bring forth a successful educational programme, it is essential to undertake timely review of the curriculum and update the same. A qualitative curriculum update is only possible through interaction and dialogue with educators, thinkers, philosophers, entrepreneurs, and students. To a great extent, these interactions can guide in creating a flexible and dynamic curriculum that would connect with contemporary socio-economic requirements and technological developments. The whole exercise of updating the curriculum is directly connected to the overarching issue concerning the field of education as a whole, drawing upon the Interconnectedness of the curriculum, the pedagogy, and the teachers.

IS Mathur, Fellow, Ravi J. Matthai Design Research Chair for Innovation in Design Education at NID, has interviewed many individuals of consequence and their ideas have contributed to the development of concepts relevant to design education in the present Indian context. The extensive research work done through this research chair has led to various reflections which have been compiled in three major sections of his book-Design Education in India: Retrospection, Introspection, and Perception.

Unfortunately, I.S. Mathur passed away while giving finishing touches to this book. I knew him since the last 25 years and am yet to come across another person with the unlimited energy, optimism, and leadership values that he possessed. In the course of his life, he persevered through and overcame many personal tragedies and never let these affect his work.

I have been extremely privileged to hold the Ravi J. Matthai Design Research Chair for Innovation in Design Education at the National Institute of Design (NID). Having been in the field of academics and teaching for the last forty-eight years, I have experienced the process of design education in its entirety. I think that now it is time to analyse, modify, and improve the system. We have to design an educational programme to promote the dynamic growth of design education and make it suitable to contemporary Indian society.

Today, it is extremely difficult to get good teachers/ faculty/trainers for any educational programme. Unfortunately, respect for the guru is diminishing. Most of the educational institutions today have become mere facility centres. The fault does not lie exclusively with the teachers, but with the whole academic system, where, education is confined to being need-based and not value-based.

As a part of research, I decided to interview designers, educators, philosophers, and visualisers in order to avoid an armchair approach whilst writing a report based only on my perception. The spin-off of this intensive research work is the compilation of their ideas, concepts, and thoughts. This process involved selecting various concepts, opinions, and expressions from the transcriptions of the original video interviews and converting them into conceptual, narrative essays that highlight issues relevant to design education. The originality of concepts and theories has been strictly preserved and most excerpts have been reproduced verbatim unless reconstruction of sentences was required for the sake of syntax and semantics. The reconstruction of the narrative is framed in a conversational format and it is the summary of many concepts extracted from these extensive interviews.