Abstract

This study is a call for a return to what the policy recommended albeit with some slight modifications. The National Policy on Education 1977 revised 1981 recommended a -three -year of early instruction in mother tongue of the child. The current study noticing the failure of various stakeholders in early education industry in Nigeria, stressed the importance of language of the immediate background of the child. The position paper established the fact that, learning to read in the target language becomes easier with good foundation from the home language using the PIRLS assessment test scores to back this position. Among the recommendations proffered for overcoming the challenges posed by not implementing what was in the National Policy on Education 1977 revised 1981 document, is six years of early instruction in mother tongue, establishment of departments of indigenous languages in the nation's universities in some parts of the country where there has been none, motivation for pupils and teachers to encourage its use in classroom and social setting during the school hours and call to NRDC for good language planning at the levels of status and corpus as well as translating some good novels written by Nigerians in English language to Nigerian indigenous languages.