Teachers trained in the three countries can no longer use the direct overseas QTS application service from September 9
The United Kingdom Department for Education has removed Nigeria, Ghana and India from the list of countries whose trained teachers can use the direct “Apply for QTS in England” service to obtain Qualified Teacher Status.
The change took effect on September 9, 2026, following an update to the DfE’s official guidance.
Qualified Teacher Status, or QTS, is the professional teaching status used in England and is required in many state schools, although obtaining QTS does not itself guarantee a teaching job or the right to work in the UK.
According to the DfE, countries remaining eligible for the direct route include Australia, Canada, countries in the European Economic Area, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Jersey, New Zealand, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United States.
Teachers trained in Jamaica, Singapore and South Africa can also qualify under specified conditions, including requirements relating to subject specialisation and the age groups they are qualified to teach.
The decision followed the publication of the department’s latest data on applications from overseas-trained teachers. The data, released on August 27, covers the 2024–2025 academic year.
The DfE said the eligibility requirements were changed to ensure that countries covered by the service have a national regulator capable of confirming teachers’ professional standing and can provide references that meet its requirements.
It said India was removed because it does not have a national regulator capable of confirming professional standing.
For Nigeria and Ghana, the department said more than 70 per cent of applications contained work-history references using public email services such as Gmail or Hotmail rather than official school email domains.
According to the DfE, this required assessors to spend additional time and resources verifying information provided by applicants. The department said it needed to be confident that information submitted by applicants was genuine before awarding QTS.
Data released by the department showed that Nigeria recorded 1,076 applications in the 2024–2025 academic year, with 364 resulting in QTS and 599 declined. Ghana recorded 1,067 applications, of which 196 resulted in QTS and 749 were declined.
Under the previous requirements, overseas-trained teachers seeking QTS were required to hold a bachelor’s degree equivalent to a UK undergraduate degree, have full professional recognition as a teacher in their country of training, complete mandatory induction requirements and demonstrate that they were qualified to teach children aged five to 16.
They also needed at least nine months of teaching experience gained after qualifying, alongside employment references verifying their work history.
The DfE said teachers who can no longer use the direct QTS application service may explore other routes into teaching in England.
One such route is assessment-only QTS for eligible teachers who can demonstrate that they already meet the required teaching standards. The government also provides information on alternative teacher-training routes, including international qualified teacher status (iQTS).
The latest change means that South Africa is currently the only African country whose teachers remain eligible for the direct QTS service, subject to the applicable conditions.