Google launches ‘Bolo’, a new speech based reading-tutor app

Comes with a built-in reading buddy, “Diya”, that helps children learn to read

Aimed at bridging the learning gap in education, Google today launched a new app ‘Bolo’ that parents can download to help primary grade children improve their Hindi & English reading skills. The beta version of Bolo, launched in India first, is optimised for native Hindi speakers, and uses Google’s speech recognition and text-to-speech technology. It comes with a built-in fun and helpful reading buddy, “Diya”, that encourages, aids, explains, and corrects the child, as they read aloud. Designed to work offline, Bolo is available today on the Google Play Store, in India, for all smartphones running Android 4.4 (Kit Kat) and higher.

As per the annual ASER 2018 report, of all students enrolled in grade 5 in rural India, only about half of them can confidently read a grade 2 level textbook. Lack of reading ability can significantly impact further education, and ultimately children’s ability to realize their full potential. While the reasons behind the lag in learning levels are varied and complex, limited access to quality material, under-resourced infrastructure, and barriers to learning outside the classroom , are amongst the primary ones.

Nitin Kashyap, Product Manager, Google India said, “ Bolo is designed as a reading-tutor app that helps primary grade students to improve their reading — anytime, anywhere. With Bolo, we aim to encourage and engage kids so their love for reading grows and it becomes a daily habit. We believe that technology can be a powerful enabler, and we want to ensure that students, parents, teachers and the education ecosystem, benefit from it. We have been piloting Bolo in 200 villages, and the early results are very encouraging. We are now actively working with a number of nonprofit partners to take it to more people across the country who could benefit from it.”

Google has been piloting Bolo with over 900 children in 200 villages in Uttar Pradesh, India, with the help of ASER Centre. The results are very encouraging, with 64% of children showing an improvement in reading proficiency in just 3 months. You can read more about the pilot results here.