The honest answer
It is the first question almost every parent and adult beginner asks, and the honest answer is: it depends. It depends on the student's age, how many lessons they have each week, and above all how much they practise between lessons.
What we can do is explain the stages, give the rough ranges that teachers commonly see, and show you what actually makes the journey shorter. Treat every number below as a guide, not a promise; every learner is different.
Stage 1: Noorani Qaida
Noorani Qaida teaches the letters, the short and long vowels, joining letters into words and the basic rules of stopping and stretching. It is the foundation for everything that follows.
With regular lessons and daily practice, many children complete it in roughly four to eight months. Very young children often need longer, and motivated older children and adults are sometimes quicker. Rushing this stage is a false saving: a weak Qaida means slow, mistake-filled reading later.
Stage 2: Reading the Quran with a teacher
After the Qaida the student begins reading from the Quran itself, usually starting with the short surahs of the last part. At first it is slow, a few lines per lesson, with the teacher correcting each word.
Speed comes naturally with volume. Many students finish their first complete reading of the Quran with a teacher in about one and a half to three years of steady lessons. The second reading is always much faster than the first.
Stage 3: Tajweed and fluency
Basic Tajweed is taught from the first day through correct pronunciation. The detailed rules, such as the rules of Noon Sakinah and the different kinds of stretching, are usually studied once the student can read comfortably. Fluent, beautiful recitation is not a finish line but something a Muslim keeps polishing for life.
What speeds learning up
Short daily practice. Five to ten minutes every day, reading the current lesson aloud, does more than any other single thing.
Frequent lessons. Four short lessons a week beat one long one, because less is forgotten in between.
One-to-one teaching. The student reads for the whole lesson and every mistake is corrected at once.
The same teacher. A teacher who knows the child's weak points does not waste time rediscovering them.
What slows learning down
Long gaps are the main cause: missed weeks during holidays, exams or travel mean old lessons must be repeated. Changing teachers or methods often has a similar effect. So does moving ahead before a lesson is truly learned, simply to feel that progress is being made. Finally, a child who is tired, hungry or distracted in class learns very little, so choose the lesson time with care.
Find out where your child stands
The quickest way to get a realistic estimate for your own child is to have a teacher listen to them. In a free trial class at Suffa Quran Online Academy the teacher checks the student's current level and tells you which stage to begin from and what a sensible weekly plan looks like. You can book it from the Free Trial page.