Teachers trained in Nigeria and Ghana are no longer eligible to apply for Qualified Teacher Status in England through the United Kingdom’s overseas-trained teacher route, the Department for Education has confirmed.
The change took effect on September 9. It means applicants from the two West African countries can no longer use the streamlined process that leads to QTS, a professional status recognised by many English schools.
Countries on the eligible list must meet strict conditions that allow the UK to verify an applicant’s qualifications, professional standing and teaching experience. One key requirement is a national regulator able to confirm a teacher’s status and supply authenticated references. Nigeria and Ghana failed to satisfy the reference verification standard.
Department data shows that more than 70 per cent of applications from teachers trained in the two countries include work history references sent from public email accounts such as Gmail or Hotmail rather than a school’s official domain. Assessors must therefore spend extra time and resources confirming the information, the department said.
India has also been removed from the list because it lacks a national regulator capable of confirming teachers’ professional standing. South Africa is now the only African country whose teachers can still use the overseas QTS application route.
About 90 per cent of applications under the scheme are assessed within 12 months. To qualify, overseas-trained teachers must hold a valid passport, an undergraduate degree equivalent to a UK bachelor’s degree, and professional recognition as a teacher in the country where they trained. They must also have completed any mandatory induction required for full registration, be qualified to teach children aged five to 16, and possess at least nine months of post-qualification teaching experience.
Employment references must come from an email address linked to the school’s official domain. Depending on the country of training, additional requirements can include subject specialisms and qualifications to teach pupils aged 11 to 16.
Because individual schools, not the Department for Education, employ teachers in England, other routes into the profession remain open. Teachers from Nigeria and Ghana who can no longer use the QTS application service are being advised to explore those alternatives.
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