COLOMBO, July 16 -- Sri Lanka spent up to 16 times more on debt repayments than on education last year - the widest gap of any of the world's most indebted countries - a new UN report revealed, highlighting how developing nations are being trapped in a spiral of debt servicing and eroding public services.

The finding, from UNESCO's Global Education Monitoring Report, places Sri Lanka at the extreme end of a pattern now affecting most of the developing world. Across 113 developing countries, governments spent more on servicing foreign debt than on education in 2025. In sub-Saharan Africa, the ratio averaged 3.6 times more spent on debt than on education. Among the 18 most heavily indebted countries, the average was five times more, with S...