Last evening I learnt that my daughter had gained admission to the National Institute of Design, and I all but did a jig. Out of an estimated 8000 applicants, 75 (yes, 75, less than 1%) make the grade, and my daughter was one of them.
Awesome.
But that’s only the happily-ever-after part of the fairy tale.
My daughter attempted the exam last year, and didn’t make the cut. She joined a college in Mumbai, and tried the NID entrance again this year. A month ago, we learnt that she had passed the first hurdle – 247 of the original applicants were invited to a studio test and interview to Ahmedabad – and this number would get whittled down to 75.
75 seats in a country as large as India.
75 seats in design, of which just 10-15 are designated for communication design, when the Goafest talks of the advertising business growing from Rs 15,000 crore to Rs 50,000 crore.
75 seats in design when we have new products being launched every day, when retail is booming, the consumer class is exploding and purchasing power is at its highest.
If my daughter hadn’t got in this year, she would probably have gone on with life, and completed her Bachelors in Mass Media.
And of those who didn’t make it this year, the majority will find academic options outside of design. Some will become lawyers, some journalists, some researchers and so on.
Not because they no longer wish to pursue design, but because there are hardly any institutions in the country that teach design.
And this state of affairs is the same outside of design – engineering, hospitality, management, law, medicine, you name it.
And one worries, because educational institutes cannot be built in a day. If the shortage is so acute today, what will the children of tomorrow do?
And without an educated youth, where will India’s growth story go from here?
Cat Stevens worried about growth and children when he sang, “I know we’ve come a long way, we’re changing day to day, but, tell me, where do the children play?”
Awesome.
But that’s only the happily-ever-after part of the fairy tale.
My daughter attempted the exam last year, and didn’t make the cut. She joined a college in Mumbai, and tried the NID entrance again this year. A month ago, we learnt that she had passed the first hurdle – 247 of the original applicants were invited to a studio test and interview to Ahmedabad – and this number would get whittled down to 75.
75 seats in a country as large as India.
75 seats in design, of which just 10-15 are designated for communication design, when the Goafest talks of the advertising business growing from Rs 15,000 crore to Rs 50,000 crore.
75 seats in design when we have new products being launched every day, when retail is booming, the consumer class is exploding and purchasing power is at its highest.
If my daughter hadn’t got in this year, she would probably have gone on with life, and completed her Bachelors in Mass Media.
And of those who didn’t make it this year, the majority will find academic options outside of design. Some will become lawyers, some journalists, some researchers and so on.
Not because they no longer wish to pursue design, but because there are hardly any institutions in the country that teach design.
And this state of affairs is the same outside of design – engineering, hospitality, management, law, medicine, you name it.
And one worries, because educational institutes cannot be built in a day. If the shortage is so acute today, what will the children of tomorrow do?
And without an educated youth, where will India’s growth story go from here?
Cat Stevens worried about growth and children when he sang, “I know we’ve come a long way, we’re changing day to day, but, tell me, where do the children play?”
I’d worry more about where they would study.
6 comments:
Amazing care for ur daughter can be seen underlying in this post.. Just a question, is education in a college - the only way to learn a trade????... My MBA experience has taught me, u dont need a degree to master management/business.. Dont know about design to comment on it.. My views about the need for a management degree can be read at http://robinsamuel.blogspot.com/2007/04/is-mba-from-indian-institutes-are.html
Anyway, convey my congrats for ur daughter..
And some equally well-reputed institutes only have 7 to 10 seats for 10,000 applicants.
Well said...errr...blogged Sir. No wonder every second agency seems to be starting their own agency! But yes the worrying thing is not just the final number of seats in the classroom but how many of them will finally be reserved for the well-deserved!
congrats to your family anyways!
Cheers!
Wow, well you ought to be proud of your daughter. I wanted to try out for NID too but seeing the ratios i chickened out. :-(
I really dont get why they have such a few number of seats.
Anyway wish her all the best from me.
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