LONDON: Unesco has urged governments and international lenders to expand debt-for-education swaps to help tackle a worsening education financing crisis, warning that 113 countries now spend more on servicing debt than on education.

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation launched new guidance on debt swaps at a global education summit in Paris on Friday, arguing that the mechanism could help heavily indebted countries redirect scarce resources towards schools, teacher training and student support.

Debt-for-education swaps allow countries to refinance or buy back expensive debt and channel the savings into education.

The World Bank has recently started backing such arrangements, and Unesco pointed to bilateral examples, including a 2023 agreement with France that helped Ivory Coast finance the construction of more than 30 schools, and a Spain-Peru programme that funded 50 education projects over a decade.

113 countries spend more on debt servicing than on education

Unesco’s call comes as new research highlights mounting pressure on education budgets worldwide. According to the agency, 113 countries, home to 6.1 billion people, spend more on debt servicing than on education.

In low-income countries, debt payments are nearly four times higher than education spending. In 18 of the most heavily indebted countries, they exceed education budgets by at least five times.

Unesco also warned that international support for education is shrinking. Its Global Education Monitoring Report projects that global aid to education could fall by as much as 30 per cent between 2023 and 2027.

Aid to education fell 8pc in 2024 from the previous year, while funding for basic education dropped 15pc.

Low- and lower-middle-income countries have already lost 21pc of the education aid they received in 2023, Unesco said.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2026