The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has launched a mobile application called Teacher's Assistant for Reading Assessment (TARA), designed to measure oral reading fluency using advanced speech processing and machine learning technology.

This innovative system is trained on expert-annotated recordings of children's reading, ensuring its reliability is on par with human evaluators.

Currently, over 700,000 students from 1,200 schools across India are participating in this initiative, marking it as the largest reading fluency assessment exercise in the nation.

The initiative aligns with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which identifies a significant challenge in India, estimating that 50 million students lack foundational literacy and numeracy skills.

TARA is part of the NIPUN Bharat National Mission, with Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) schools serving as models for achieving foundational literacy and numeracy by Grade 3.

In collaboration with KVS authorities, IIT Bombay is also focusing on designing effective remedial instruction for students who are struggling with reading.

The app began its deployment in KVS schools in October 2024 and has since been rapidly rolled out across the country.

The project has received funding from several organizations, including the Tata Centre of Technology and Design and the Abdul Kalam Technology Innovation Fellowship, under the leadership of Professor Preeti Rao.

A baseline test conducted in October 2023 established benchmarks for oral reading fluency among students in Grades 3-8 in both English and Hindi.

The 2022 Annual Status of Education Report revealed that over half of Class 5 students could not read a Class 2-level text, highlighting a significant literacy gap exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dr. Shailaja Menon from Tata Trusts emphasized the need for a digital tool that provides real-time data on learning levels, a gap that TARA effectively fills by offering detailed performance insights through a user-friendly dashboard.

TARA addresses the traditionally labor-intensive and time-consuming process of assessing reading skills, which typically requires trained evaluators.