Teachers trained in Nigeria and Ghana can no longer apply for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) in England through the overseas-trained teacher application route, following the removal of both countries from the United Kingdom’s list of eligible countries.
The UK Department for Education said the change took effect on September 9, 2026, after Nigeria and Ghana no longer met one of the requirements for countries included in the QTS application route.
Under the requirements, eligible countries must have a national regulator capable of confirming teachers’ professional standing and providing authenticated references.
The Department for Education said more than 70 per cent of applications from teachers trained in Nigeria and Ghana contained work-history references associated with public email services such as Gmail and Hotmail rather than official school email addresses.
It said the practice created difficulties for assessors, who had to devote additional time and resources to verifying the information supplied by applicants.
The department said the verification requirement was intended to ensure that information submitted by applicants was genuine and that overseas-trained teachers awarded QTS possessed the required skills and experience to teach in schools in England.
India has also been removed from the eligible-country list because, according to the UK education authorities, it does not have a national regulator capable of confirming teachers’ professional standing.
With the changes, South Africa is currently the only African country listed for the overseas-trained teacher route to QTS in England, according to the information released by the UK Department for Education.
Applicants using the QTS route are required to satisfy a number of conditions, including holding a valid passport and an undergraduate degree equivalent to a UK bachelor’s degree.
They must also be recognised as professionally qualified teachers in the country where they completed their teacher training and have completed any mandatory induction required for full teacher registration there.
Applicants must provide evidence that they are qualified to teach children aged between five and 16 and have at least nine months of teaching experience acquired after becoming qualified.
Employment references must also be capable of verifying the applicant’s teaching history through an email address connected to the relevant school’s official domain.
Additional requirements may apply depending on the country where the teacher received training. These can include qualifications to teach pupils aged 11 to 16 and specialisation in subjects such as mathematics, science, biology, chemistry, physics, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin, Russian or Spanish.
The Department for Education said around 90 per cent of applications are assessed within 12 months.
The development does not necessarily prevent teachers trained in Nigeria or Ghana from working in England through every possible route. The UK education authorities noted that teachers in England are employed directly by individual schools rather than by the Department for Education.
As a result, some schools may consider teachers through alternative qualification routes, although QTS remains a qualification preferred by most schools.
Teachers from countries that are no longer eligible for the overseas-trained teacher QTS application service have therefore been advised to explore other available routes to securing teaching opportunities in England.
The change is likely to affect Nigerian and Ghanaian teachers who had previously considered the overseas-trained teacher route as a pathway towards obtaining professional teaching status in England.
The Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), which regulates the teaching profession in Nigeria is yet to comment on the development.
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