The latest data released by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has laid bare the heavy burden of the global debt crisis on education systems. A total of 113 countries with a combined population of 6.1 billion are spending more on debt repayments than on education budgets.
In low-income countries, this gap approaches four times, while the situation is even more dire in the 18 most heavily indebted nations, where governments pay creditors at least five dollars for every dollar spent on education.
World Bank data also confirms the debt spiral facing developing countries. Between 2022 and 2024, these nations paid $741 billion more in principal and interest to external creditors than they received in new financing—the largest net debt outflow in half a century. In 2024 alone, low- and middle-income countries' interest payments hit a record $415 billion.
The international system prioritizes creditors over children
The figures lay bare the priorities of the international financial system. Creditors hold enforceable claims on public revenues, while children's right to education is largely confined to declarations and promises. When the two collide, creditors collect first.
The consequences of this choice are evident: overcrowded classrooms, crumbling school buildings, teacher shortages, unaffordable school costs, and children forced to drop out. The situation is often couched in technical terms like 'financing gap,' yet the root cause is not governments’ willful neglect, but priorities squeezed by debt pressure.
Debt-for-education swaps fall short
Faced with this picture, UNESCO recommends expanding debt-for-education swap programs. Under this mechanism, a creditor writes off a portion of a country's debt in exchange for the government committing to invest in specific education programs.
These programs can deliver tangible benefits. For example, thanks to a 2023 agreement with France, Côte d'Ivoire financed over 30 schools in areas with limited access to services. Germany's program with Egypt supported school nutrition and basic services, while cooperation between Spain and Peru brought education projects to vulnerable regions.
Yet these swaps offer no solution to a broader debt crisis. The programs typically cover only a tiny fraction of total debt, depend on the voluntary consent of creditors, and can impose new external oversight on public spending. The most fundamental issue is that the principle of creditors' entitlement to repayment goes unchallenged.
Aid shrinks while debt burden grows
The downward trend in international education aid is making the situation even worse. UNESCO predicts that such aid could drop by up to 30 percent between 2023 and 2027. Indebted countries are being squeezed from both sides—by the withdrawal of external aid and by fixed debt repayments.
Advice to developing countries to 'generate more domestic resources' also falls short in practice. While progressive taxation and anti-corruption efforts are important, extra revenues often end up servicing high-interest debt or repayments inflated by exchange rate fluctuations, preventing transformative investment in education systems.
The bulk of education budgets consists of mandatory, recurring costs such as teacher salaries. When international institutions instruct the public sector to freeze wages, their simultaneous declaration of education as a priority does not suffice to close teacher shortages or expand access to education.
Call for comprehensive debt restructuring and a UN framework
The article stresses that a lasting solution could begin with large-scale debt cancellation, automatic suspension of payments during economic and climate crises, cheap concessional financing, and a fair multilateral mechanism for sovereign debt restructuring.
Currently, debt negotiations are fragmented among private creditors, bilateral lenders, and international institutions. Indebted governments must engage in tough bargaining with powerful financial actors while trying to avoid being penalized for seeking assistance.
The opinion piece argues that a binding sovereign debt framework under the United Nations umbrella could set common rules, compel both borrowers and lenders to act responsibly, and prevent holdout creditors from blocking restructuring. Such a system could place social rights at the center of assessments of a country's repayment capacity.
The opinion piece underlines the need to move toward the principle that debt repayment cannot come at any human cost, and calls for debt sustainability to be measured by whether repaying it would destroy the institutions that shape a society's future.
Ridvan Sezer | Editor-in-Chief
