UK removes Nigeria, Ghana-trained teachers from QTS eligibility list

Teachers trained in Nigeria and Ghana are no longer eligible to apply for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) in England, a status that is a legal requirement for teaching in many schools across the United Kingdom.

The exemption took effect on September 9, 2026.

The UK Department for Education said the decision followed its assessment of the teaching qualifications and professional experience of applicants from different countries.

According to the department, countries must have a national regulator capable of confirming a teacher’s professional standing and must be able to provide authenticated references for applicants to remain on the eligible list.

It said Nigeria and Ghana failed to meet the reference verification requirement.

“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.”

The department said about 90 percent of applications are assessed within 12 months.

India was also removed from the list because it does not have a national regulator capable of confirming the professional standing of teachers.

South Africa is now the only African country remaining on the list of countries whose teachers can apply through the QTS route.

The UK Department for Education said the requirements were designed to ensure that information provided by overseas teachers could be properly verified.

“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,” it said.

QTS requirements

Teachers applying for QTS must have a valid passport, an undergraduate degree equivalent to a UK bachelor’s degree and professional recognition as a teacher in the country where they completed their training.

They must also have completed all mandatory induction processes required to obtain full teacher registration in the country where they qualified.

Applicants are required to provide qualifications showing that they can teach children aged between five and 16 and must have at least one school year, or nine months, of teaching experience gained after they became qualified.

They must also provide references confirming their work history, with the references using email addresses linked to the schools where they worked.

Depending on the country where a teacher was trained, applicants may also be required to have qualifications showing they can teach children aged between 11 and 16 and have a teaching specialisation in subjects including mathematics, science, biology, chemistry, physics, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin, Russian or Spanish.

The department noted that teachers in England are employed by individual schools rather than the education department. As a result, some schools may consider alternative qualification routes, although QTS remains the preferred status for most schools.

It added that teachers who are no longer eligible to use the QTS application service in England can explore other routes into teaching.