The United Kingdom (UK) Department for Education has removed Nigeria, Ghana and India from the countries whose teachers can use the direct route to apply for Qualified Teacher Status in England.
The change took effect on September 9, 2026, following an update to the DfE’s guidance on the “Apply for QTS in England” service.
Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) is the professional teaching qualification for teachers in England and is recognised by many schools across the country.
Under the revised rules, teachers trained in Nigeria, Ghana and India can no longer use the service to apply for QTS.
The decision came after the DfE published data on applications from overseas-trained teachers for the 2024-2025 academic year.
The data, released on August 27, showed that 1,076 applications were submitted by teachers trained in Nigeria, with 364 resulting in QTS awards while 599 were declined.
For Ghana, 1,067 applications were recorded, with 196 resulting in QTS and 749 declined.
The DfE said it had revised the eligibility criteria to ensure that countries included in the service have a national regulator capable of confirming teachers’ professional standing and providing references that meet its requirements.
Explaining India’s removal, the department said it “does not have a national regulator that can confirm professional standing.”
On Nigeria and Ghana, the department said, “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.”
It added that this meant assessors spent “additional time and resources trying to verify information provided in applications.”
According to the department, the requirements are intended to ensure that information supplied by overseas applicants can be verified and that teachers awarded QTS possess the skills and experience required to teach in English schools.
“Teachers who are not eligible to apply for QTS in England service can explore other routes into teaching,” it said.
Before the latest change, overseas-trained teachers applying through the service were required to hold a valid passport and an undergraduate degree equivalent to a UK bachelor’s degree.
They also needed professional recognition as teachers in the country where they trained and had to complete any mandatory induction requirements for full teacher registration there.
Applicants were required to show that they were qualified to teach children aged five to 16 and had at least nine months of teaching experience gained after qualifying as a teacher.
Employment references were also required to verify applicants’ work history, with the email address expected to be linked to the school’s official domain.
Additional requirements could apply depending on the applicant’s country of training, including qualifications to teach pupils aged 11 to 16 and specialisms in subjects such as mathematics, science, biology, chemistry, physics, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin, Russian or Spanish.
The DfE noted that teachers in England are employed by individual schools rather than the department, meaning schools may consider alternative routes for recruiting overseas-trained teachers.
It therefore advised teachers who are no longer eligible for the QTS application service to consider other routes into teaching in England.
With Nigeria and Ghana no longer included, South Africa is now the only African country listed among those eligible for the service.
Other countries and regions that remain eligible include Australia, Canada, the European Economic Area, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Jersey, New Zealand, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United States.