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 UK Department for Education (DfE) said the new rule came into effect on September 9, 2026, following a review of the requirements for overseas-trained teachers seeking recognition in England.
Under the QTS application process, candidates are generally required to hold a valid passport, possess an undergraduate degree equivalent to a UK bachelor’s degree and be recognised as qualified teachers in the country where they completed their training.
Applicants must also have completed any mandatory induction requirements needed to obtain full professional teacher registration in their home country.
The DfE said the eligibility criteria are designed to ensure that teachers awarded QTS meet the required professional standards. It added that countries included in the overseas route must have a national regulatory body capable of verifying teachers’ professional status and providing authenticated references.
According to the department, Nigeria and Ghana no longer meet that particular requirement.
The DfE said more than 70 per cent of applications from teachers in the two countries contained employment references using personal email services, including Gmail and Hotmail, rather than official school or institutional email addresses.
It said this created additional work for assessors, who had to carry out further checks to verify information submitted by applicants.
The department noted that approximately 90 per cent of QTS applications are assessed within 12 months.
The change means teachers trained in Nigeria and Ghana will no longer be able to use the specific overseas-trained teacher route to obtain QTS in England under the new eligibility rules.
