Teachers trained in Nigeria and Ghana can no longer apply for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) in England through the UK’s overseas-trained teacher application route.
The change took effect on September 9, removing Nigeria and Ghana from the list of countries whose teachers can use the route to obtain QTS, a professional status recognised by many schools in England.
The UK Department for Education said countries included in the scheme must meet requirements that allow applicants’ qualifications, professional standing and teaching experience to be independently verified.
It said Nigeria and Ghana did not meet its reference-verification requirements.
“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.
According to the department, this creates additional work for assessors attempting to verify information provided by applicants.
India was also removed from the eligible list because it lacks a national regulator capable of confirming teachers’ professional standing. South Africa is now the only African country remaining on the list.
The Department for Education said the verification requirements were designed to ensure that information submitted by applicants was genuine and that teachers awarded QTS had the necessary skills and experience to teach in England.
It said about 90 per cent of applications were assessed within 12 months.
To apply for QTS, overseas-trained teachers must have a valid passport, an undergraduate degree equivalent to a UK bachelor’s degree and professional recognition as a teacher in the country where they trained.
Applicants must also have completed any mandatory induction requirements for full teacher registration in their country of qualification and demonstrate that they are qualified to teach children aged five to 16.
They are required to have at least nine months of teaching experience gained after qualifying as a teacher and provide employment references verifying their work history through email addresses linked to their schools’ official domains.
Depending on the country and qualification, additional requirements may include eligibility to teach pupils aged 11 to 16 and specialisation in subjects such as mathematics, science, biology, chemistry, physics, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin, Russian or Spanish.
The Department for Education said teachers who are no longer eligible for the overseas-trained teacher application service can explore alternative routes into teaching in England.
Because teachers are employed directly by individual schools rather than the Department for Education, schools may also consider other routes for recruiting qualified teachers.
