By Abayomi Balogun
The United Kingdom Department for Education has removed Nigeria, Ghana and India from the list of countries whose teachers can use the direct application route for Qualified Teacher Status in England.
The change took effect on September 9, 2026, following an update to the department’s guidance on applications for QTS, the professional teaching qualification for teachers in England.
Under the revised rules, teachers trained in Nigeria, Ghana or India are no longer eligible to use the “Apply for QTS in England” service.
The decision followed the release of data on applications from overseas-trained teachers for the 2024/2025 academic year.
According to the data, Nigeria recorded 1,076 applications, of which 364 resulted in QTS awards, while 599 applications were declined.
Ghana recorded 1,067 applications, with 196 resulting in QTS, while 749 applications were declined.
The Department for Education said its updated eligibility requirements were intended to ensure that countries covered by the service had national regulators capable of confirming teachers’ professional standing and providing references that met its requirements.
For India, the department said the country was removed because it “does not have a national regulator that can confirm professional standing.”
Explaining the decision concerning Nigeria and Ghana, the department said more than 70 per cent of applications from teachers in the two countries contained work-history references using public email services such as Gmail and Hotmail rather than official school email addresses.
According to the department, this required assessors to spend additional time and resources verifying information supplied by applicants.
It said it needed to be satisfied that information provided by overseas-trained teachers was genuine to ensure that those awarded QTS possessed the necessary skills and experience to teach in English schools.
Under the QTS 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 for full teacher registration in their country of qualification.
They are required to demonstrate that they are qualified to teach children aged between five and 16 and have at least nine months of teaching experience acquired after qualifying as a teacher.
Employment references verifying an applicant’s work history must also be provided using an email address linked to the school’s official domain.
Depending on the country where a teacher was trained, additional requirements may apply, including qualifications to teach pupils aged between 11 and 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 stressed that teachers who are no longer eligible for the QTS application service can explore alternative routes into teaching in England.
Since teachers in England are employed by individual schools rather than directly by the Department for Education, schools may consider other pathways for recruiting qualified overseas teachers.
Following the latest changes, South Africa is the only African country remaining on the general list of countries covered by 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 requirements relating to subjects taught and the age groups they are qualified to teach.
The new rules are expected to affect Nigerian and Ghanaian teachers seeking to obtain professional teaching status through England’s direct overseas application route.