UK Removes Nigeria, Ghana From Overseas Teacher Qualification Route

Teachers trained in Nigeria and Ghana are no longer eligible to apply for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) in England through the United Kingdom’s overseas-trained teacher application route.

The change took effect on September 9, 2026, and means qualified teachers from the two West African countries can no longer use the specific route to obtain QTS, a status recognised by schools across England.

The UK Department for Education said countries included in the scheme must meet certain requirements designed to ensure that applicants’ academic qualifications, professional standing and teaching experience can be properly verified.

One of the key requirements is for each country to have a national regulatory body capable of confirming the professional status of teachers and providing authenticated employment references.

The department said Nigeria and Ghana failed to meet the reference-verification requirement.

According to the UK government, more than 70 per cent of applications from teachers trained in Nigeria and Ghana contain employment references linked to public email services such as Gmail and Hotmail instead of official school email domains.

The department said this creates additional work for assessors who have to carry out further checks to verify information submitted by applicants.

The UK authorities said the verification process is intended to ensure that information provided by applicants is genuine and that teachers awarded QTS have the necessary qualifications, skills and experience to teach in England.

India was also removed from the eligible countries because it does not have a national regulator capable of confirming teachers’ professional standing.
Following the changes, South Africa is currently the only African country remaining on the list of countries whose teachers can apply through the overseas-trained teacher QTS route.

To qualify for QTS through the route, overseas-trained teachers are required to hold a valid passport and an undergraduate degree considered equivalent to a UK bachelor’s degree.

They must also have professional recognition as teachers in the country where they received their training and must have completed any mandatory induction requirements required for full registration in their home country.

Applicants are required to demonstrate that they are qualified to teach children between the ages of five and 16 and have at least nine months of teaching experience obtained after qualifying as a teacher.

They must also submit employment references confirming their work history, with the references required to come from official school email domains.

Depending on the country where a teacher was trained, additional requirements may apply.

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 and Spanish.

The UK Department for Education said about 90 per cent of applications are assessed within 12 months.

However, it noted that teachers who are no longer eligible for the QTS application route may still explore other pathways into teaching in England.

The department also pointed out that teachers in England are employed by individual schools rather than directly by the Department for Education, meaning schools may consider alternative routes when recruiting overseas-trained teachers.

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