Teachers trained in Ghana and Nigeria are no longer eligible to apply for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) in the United Kingdom, a requirement for teaching in the majority of schools in England.
The policy change officially took effect on September 9.
According to the UK Department for Education, candidate qualifications and professional experience are evaluated against strict criteria to maintain high standards for QTS certification.
Under the updated guidelines, a country must possess a national regulatory body capable of verifying a teacher’s professional credentials and providing authenticated references for its educators to maintain eligibility.
“Our data shows that more than 70% of applications from teachers in Ghana and Nigeria include work history references that use public email addresses, such as Gmail or Hotmail, rather than a school’s official email domain,” the department said.
“This means assessors spend additional time and resources trying to verify information provided in applications.”
India was also removed from the eligible list due to the absence of a national regulatory body capable of verifying teachers’ professional standing.
South Africa remains the only African country still included among the qualifying nations.
“We must be confident that the information applicants provide is genuine. This helps ensure that overseas teachers awarded qualified teacher status have the skills and experience needed to teach in schools in England,” the department said.
QTS Qualification
Applicants for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) must have a valid, unexpired passport and an undergraduate degree equivalent to a UK bachelor’s degree.
They must also hold professional teacher recognition in the country where they completed their teacher training and complete all required induction procedures for full teacher registration in that country.
Applicants must demonstrate that they are qualified to teach pupils aged five to 16 and have at least one school year, or nine months, of teaching experience in any country after obtaining their initial teaching qualification.
They must also provide references that can verify their employment history and have a school-domain email address.
Depending on the country where they completed their teacher training, applicants may need to demonstrate that they are qualified to teach subjects such as mathematics, science, biology, chemistry, physics, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin, Russian or Spanish.
Although most schools still prefer Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), some may consider alternative qualification routes because individual schools, rather than the education department, employ teachers in England.
Consequently, the department said teachers who are not eligible to use the apply for QTS qualification in England service can explore other routes.
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