Nigeria, Ghana Teachers Lose Access to UK QTS Application Route

The United Kingdom has removed Nigeria and Ghana from the list of countries whose trained teachers can apply for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) in England through its overseas-trained teacher application route.

The policy change came into effect on September 9, preventing teachers trained in the two countries from using the route to secure QTS, which is recognised by many schools in England.

The Department for Education said participating countries must satisfy specific conditions designed to allow applicants’ qualifications, professional status and teaching experience to be verified.

A key condition is for countries to have a national regulator that can confirm a teacher’s professional standing and provide authenticated references.

The department said Nigeria and Ghana did not satisfy 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. This means assessors spend additional time and resources trying to verify information provided in applications,” the department said.

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

India has also been excluded from the QTS route because it lacks a national regulator capable of verifying teachers’ professional standing.

With the latest changes, South Africa is the only African country remaining on the eligible list for the QTS application route.

According to the Department for Education, the verification process is designed to establish that information supplied by applicants is genuine and that teachers granted QTS have the skills and experience required to teach in England.

Overseas-trained 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 received their training.

They must also meet any mandatory induction requirements required for full teacher registration in their country of qualification.

Applicants must demonstrate that they are qualified to teach children between five and 16 years old and have completed at least nine months of teaching experience after qualifying as a teacher.

They are also required to submit employment references confirming their work history, with the references using an email address associated with the school’s official domain.

Additional conditions may apply depending on the applicant’s country of training. These can include qualifications to teach pupils aged 11 to 16 and specialisation in subjects including mathematics, science, biology, chemistry, physics, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin, Russian and Spanish.

The Department for Education noted that teachers in England are employed by individual schools rather than by the department itself. This means schools may consider other routes for applicants seeking to enter the teaching profession.

Teachers who can no longer use the QTS application service because of the changes have been advised to explore alternative routes into teaching in England.

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