The United Kingdom (UK) recently excluded Nigeria, Ghana and India from the list of countries whose teachers are eligible to use its direct application service for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) to strengthen their prospects for teaching jobs in the UK.
The change followed difficulties verifying applicants’ work history, as more than 70 percent of applications from teachers trained in Nigeria and Ghana use public-domain email addresses such as Gmail and Hotmail for references, according to the UK’s Department for Education (DfE).
QTS is the professional status required to teach in many schools in England and is preferred by most schools when recruiting teachers. For this reason, the government said it must be confident that information provided by overseas-trained teachers is genuine, as QTS is intended to ensure that teachers entering England’s schools have the necessary skills and experience.
India was excluded for a different reason, as the UK government said the country does not have a national regulator capable of confirming teachers’ professional standing, one of the conditions now required for countries to remain eligible for the QTS application service.
According to the DfE, the use of public email addresses creates additional verification work for assessors. Its publication states: ‘Our data shows that more than 70 percent 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 exclusion does not affect teachers trained in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States, Switzerland, Ukraine, Hong Kong and countries in the European Economic Area. Teachers trained in Jamaica, Singapore and South Africa can also apply if they are working in a valid teaching role in England and meet the other requirements.
What QTS means for overseas teachers
QTS does not guarantee a teaching job or give an overseas-trained teacher the right to work in England. Applicants must still secure employment separately and have the appropriate visa or immigration status to work in the country.
For teachers who remain eligible, QTS applications are assessed against mandatory requirements covering academic qualifications, professional recognition and teaching experience.
Applicants must generally hold a bachelor’s degree equivalent to a UK undergraduate degree, have full professional status to teach in the country where they trained, meet the mandatory training and induction requirements of that country and have no conditions or restrictions on their teaching practice.
They must also be qualified to teach children aged five to 16 and have completed teacher training that meets prescribed standards, including the equivalent of at least one year of full-time English initial teacher training.
Applicants must demonstrate at least the equivalent of one school year of teaching experience after obtaining their teaching qualification.
That experience must have been gained in mainstream compulsory education and involve unsupervised teaching of primary or secondary pupils. Teachers must have been responsible for planning, preparing and delivering lessons, as well as assessing and reporting on pupils’ progress.
The UK government will contact applicants’ references to verify their work history, making the quality and verifiability of professional references an important part of the application process.
Other routes remain open
For Nigeria-trained teachers who can no longer use the QTS application service, the change does not mean that all routes into teaching in England are closed.
Affected teachers may still qualify through assessment-only while those who need further training can undertake an approved teacher-training programme in England. Teachers living outside the UK can also pursue International Qualified Teacher Status (iQTS), which allows them to train in their country of residence and leads to English QTS upon successful completion.
In addition, qualified overseas teachers may be able to teach in England for up to four years provided they meet the conditions of the four-year exemption and secure the necessary employment and immigration status. QTS is also not required for every teaching role, with some independent schools, academies, further education and early-years schools are able to employ teachers without the status.
Teachers who hold Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) and are members of the Society for Education and Training can also work as qualified teachers in schools in England, subject to the requirements of the individual school or local authority.
The September 2026 change therefore restricts the direct QTS application route for Nigerian-trained teachers but does not eliminate all pathways into teaching in England.