The United Kingdom Department for Education has excluded teachers trained in Nigeria, Ghana and India from using its direct route to apply for Qualified Teacher Status in England.
The change took effect on September 9, 2026, according to updated guidance published by the DfE.
Qualified Teacher Status is the professional teaching status for England and is required to teach in many state schools. The DfE said teachers trained to teach in Ghana, India or Nigeria would no longer be eligible to use the “Apply for QTS in England” service from the effective date.
The decision followed the release of application data for the 2024–2025 academic year.
According to the DfE data, Nigeria recorded 1,076 applications, with 364 resulting in QTS and 599 declined. Ghana recorded 1,067 applications, of which 196 resulted in QTS and 749 were declined. The figures exclude applications that were still being processed or had been withdrawn.
The department said it had updated the eligibility requirements to ensure that countries covered by the service had a national regulator capable of confirming a teacher’s professional standing and could provide references that met its requirements.
It said India was excluded because it “does not have a national regulator that can confirm professional standing.”
On Nigeria and Ghana, the DfE said more than 70 per cent of applications from teachers in the two countries contained work history references using public email addresses, including Gmail and Hotmail, instead of official school email domains.
The department said this required assessors to spend additional time and resources verifying information provided by applicants.
The DfE said it needed to be confident that information supplied by applicants was genuine to ensure that overseas teachers awarded QTS had the skills and experience required to teach in English schools.
Teachers affected by the change can explore other routes into teaching in England, according to the department.
Under the QTS route, overseas-trained teachers must have a bachelor’s degree equivalent to a UK undergraduate degree, full professional recognition as a teacher in the country where they trained and meet the required teaching experience and other eligibility conditions.
Applicants must also demonstrate that they are qualified to teach children aged between five and 16 and have at least nine months of teaching experience gained after qualifying as a teacher.
They must provide employment references confirming their work history, with the references meeting the DfE’s verification requirements.
The DfE said teachers from Australia, Canada, the European Economic Area, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Jersey, New Zealand, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United States remain eligible to use the service if they meet the requirements.
Teachers trained in Jamaica, Singapore and South Africa may also apply under specified conditions, including additional subject and age requirements in some cases.
Following the removal of Nigeria and Ghana, South Africa remains the only African country in the main group of countries listed as eligible for the service, while Jamaica and Singapore are subject to additional conditions.
The DfE stressed that QTS does not itself guarantee a teaching job or the right to work in England. Teachers must apply to individual schools and obtain the appropriate visa or immigration status where required.