Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the Nigerian parents’ awareness and their level of involvement in the early literacy development of their children and its role in the fallen standard of education in Nigeria. Four research questions were raised. A questionnaire titled: Parental Early Literacy Involvement Questionnaire (PELIQ) was used to obtain data from 200 parents from 20 pre-primary schools in Port Harcourt Local Government area of Rivers State Nigeria. The questionnaire had two sections; namely, sections A and B respectively. Section A obtained the demographic features and bio-data of parents while section B determined the awareness, various modes, level of involvement and the challenges they faced. Simple percentages, mean, standard deviation and chi square were used to answer the research questions. The study revealed among other things that both the awareness level and level of involvement of Nigerian parents in the early literacy development of their children is very low. This is one of the major reasons while the standard of Nigerian education is dropping by the day. Parental early literacy development involvement positively affects their school performance including higher academic achievement and also improves their social and emotional development. The researchers, therefore recommended that Parents should assume their responsibilities in their children’s early literacy developments and that the schools and other stakeholders should create the awareness among parents on different ways they can get involved in helping their children develop their literacy skills and the schools should also help by involving parents in school programs that targets early literacy development.