Yes it does make sense to pay for others' education. I would go so far as to say it is our duty, where "our" is us in the rich countries, to help the world.

- or if you are cheaper think of it like this -

Say someone gets educated in a country and learns a bit about the language and culture and gets some friends. Then this said person returns to country of birth and starts a business with some international connections. It is then plausible that the place of known culture and language and where friends reside is a more likely country to trade and work with.

That is one of the down sides of democracy. The signal to noise ration is sometimes bad.
But what you consider BS one time might be the truth the next. It is up to you.