Singapore’s bilingual policy validates English as the language of governmental administration and interethnic communication, and as medium of instruction in all schools on all levels and across all subjects save mother tongues (MTs), causing a visible shift in all ethnic groups away from MTs towards English. To correct the language shift situation, the government underscored that bilingualism development should start in preschools. This inquiry explores two top-down official documents: Review of Mother Tongue Languages Report (2011), and Nurturing Early Learners Framework for Mother Tongue Languages (2013), and tries to discern some of the intricate factors that affect language shift. It collates the consistencies and pinpoints the implicit contradictions in the policy position on bilingual preschool education. It sketches the implications for altering the actual bilingual educational models and supplying teacher training programmes that maximise young bilingual learners' learning chances.