The United Kingdom Department for Education, DFE, has removed Nigeria, Ghana and India from the countries whose teachers can use its direct route to apply for Qualified Teacher Status,QTS ,in England.
The change took effect on Sept. 9, 2026, following an update to the DfE’s guidance on the “Apply for QTS in England” service.
Qualified Teacher Status is the professional teaching qualification for teachers in England and is recognised by many schools in the country.
Under the new guidance, teachers trained in Nigeria, Ghana and India are no longer eligible to use the service to apply for QTS.
The decision followed the release of data on applications from overseas-trained teachers for the 2024-2025 academic year.
The data, released on Aug. 27, showed that Nigeria recorded 1,076 applications, with 364 resulting in QTS awards, while 599 applications were declined.
Ghana recorded 1,067 applications, of which 196 resulted in QTS, while 749 were declined.
The DfE said it updated the eligibility requirements to ensure that countries covered by the service had a national regulator capable of confirming teachers’ professional standing and providing references that met its requirements.
The department said India was excluded because it “does not have a national regulator that can confirm professional standing.”
For Nigeria and Ghana, the DfE said more than 70 per cent of applications included work history references using public email addresses, such as Gmail or Hotmail, rather than official school email domains.
It said this required assessors to spend additional time and resources verifying information provided in applications.
The department said it needed to ensure that information submitted by applicants was genuine and that teachers awarded QTS had the skills and experience required to teach in English schools.
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“Teachers who are not eligible to apply for QTS in England service can explore other routes into teaching,” it said.
Under the QTS application requirements, overseas-trained teachers 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 trained.
Applicants must also have completed any mandatory induction requirements required for full teacher registration in their country of qualification.
They must demonstrate that they are qualified to teach children aged between five and 16 and have at least nine months of teaching experience gained after qualifying as a teacher.
Applicants are also required to provide employment references verifying their work history and use an email address linked to the school’s official domain.
Depending on the country where a teacher trained, additional requirements may include qualifications to teach pupils aged between 11 and 16 and a specialism in subjects including mathematics, science, biology, chemistry, physics, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin, Russian or Spanish.
The DfE said teachers in England are employed by individual schools rather than the department, meaning schools may consider alternative routes into teaching.
It said teachers who are no longer eligible to use the QTS application service could explore other routes into teaching in England.
With Nigeria and Ghana removed, South Africa is now the only African country listed under the general eligible countries for the service.
Other countries and regions that remain eligible include Australia, Canada, the European Economic Area, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Jersey, New Zealand, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United States.
Teachers qualified in Jamaica, Singapore and South Africa may also apply under specified conditions, including additional subject and age requirements where applicable.
Punch News
