Teachers trained in Nigeria and Ghana are no longer eligible to apply for the United Kingdom’s (UK) Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), a legal requirement for teaching in many schools in England, following an exemption that took effect on September 9, 2026, according to the UK Department for Education.
The department said teaching qualifications and experience are assessed against strict requirements to ensure that only teachers who meet its standards are awarded QTS.
It said countries must have a national regulator that can confirm a teacher’s professional standing and provide authenticated references to remain eligible.
According to the department, Nigeria and Ghana failed to meet the reference 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,” the department said.
The department added that this requires assessors to spend additional time and resources verifying information provided by applicants.
India was also removed from the list because it does not have a national regulator that can confirm teachers’ professional standing.
South Africa is now the only African country on the list of countries whose teachers can apply through the QTS route.
The UK Department for Education said the requirements are intended to ensure that information provided by applicants is genuine and that overseas teachers awarded QTS have the skills and experience required to teach in England.
To apply for QTS, teachers must have a valid passport, an undergraduate degree equivalent to a UK bachelor’s degree, recognition as a professional teacher in the country where they completed their training, and have completed all mandatory induction processes required for full teacher registration.
Applicants must also provide evidence that they are qualified to teach children aged between five and 16, as well as at least one school year, or nine months, of teaching experience gained after they became qualified to teach.
They must also provide references confirming their work history, with the references using an email address associated with the school’s official domain.
Depending on the country where they trained, applicants may also need qualifications showing they can teach children aged between 11 and 16 and have a teaching specialism in subjects including mathematics, science, biology, chemistry, physics, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin, Russian or Spanish.
The department said teachers who are not eligible to use the QTS application service in England can explore alternative qualification routes.
Although teachers in England are employed by individual schools rather than the education department, the department noted that QTS remains a status preferred by most schools.
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