While literacy requires some commonality, recent research has shown that literacy is socially embedded, and that people use various “literacies” in different settings in their lives. This paper explores the UNESCO Fundamental Education Program, carried out from 1946 until 1958, as one of the early efforts that took this diversity into account. Three questions were examined. First, to what extent did UNESCO intend to ensure the diversity of literacy in the program? Second, what kind of diversity was taken into account? Third, what did UNESCO aim to ensure in common regardless of cultural and social contexts?

An analysis of the program, with a focus on its plans and ensuing discussions on literacy and language, revealed that the fundamental education was designed to respond to the immediate problems of each local community and to develop its distinctive culture and resources. UNESCO believed that the specific content of education should be diverse. It also recognized the cultural and social aspects of literacy, and the diversity of languages in terms of their linguistic characteristics and the meaning and values they held for local people. At the same time, UNESCO emphasized that the acquisition of literacy was crucial to tackle poverty, and that spiritual and moral development was essential to promote international understanding and solidarity. Finally, the international situation after World War II and the thought of J. Huxley, the first UNESCO director general, greatly influenced the program and its characteristics.