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Teachers who qualified in Nigeria and Ghana can no longer use the United Kingdom’s overseas-trained teacher route to apply for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) in England.
The change, which came into effect on September 9, means applicants trained in the two West African countries have been removed from the list of countries whose teachers can seek QTS through the application service.
QTS is a professional status used by many schools in England when recruiting teachers.
The UK Department for Education said the decision followed a review of the conditions countries must meet to remain part of the scheme.
According to the department, participating countries are expected to have systems that allow the UK authorities to authenticate applicants’ qualifications, professional status and teaching records.
A key requirement is the existence of a national regulator that can confirm a teacher’s professional standing and provide verified references.
The department said Nigeria and Ghana did not satisfy the requirement relating to the verification of employment references.
It said more than 70 per cent of applications from teachers trained in the two countries contained work-history references sent from personal email services rather than official school domains.
“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.
It explained that this creates additional work for assessors, who have to spend more time and resources checking the authenticity of information contained in applications.
The UK authorities said around 90 per cent of applications submitted through the service are assessed within 12 months.
Nigeria and Ghana are not the only countries affected by the latest change. India was also removed because, according to the department, it does not have a national regulator able to verify teachers’ professional standing.
With the changes, South Africa remains the only African country whose teachers are currently eligible to use the QTS application route.
The Department for Education said the verification process is intended to protect the integrity of the qualification by ensuring that information submitted by applicants can be authenticated.
It also requires applicants to meet a number of other conditions.
Overseas-trained teachers seeking QTS must have a valid passport and an undergraduate qualification considered equivalent to a UK bachelor’s degree. They must also be professionally recognised as teachers in the country where they received their training.
Applicants must have completed any compulsory induction or registration requirements applicable in their country of qualification.
They are also expected to demonstrate that they are qualified to teach pupils aged between five and 16 and have accumulated at least nine months of teaching experience after qualifying.
Employment references must confirm an applicant’s work history and be provided through an email address connected to the school’s official domain.
Additional criteria may apply depending on where the teacher was trained. These include qualifications covering 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.
Despite the removal of Nigeria and Ghana from the QTS application route, the Department for Education said there may still be other ways for overseas-trained teachers to work in England.
Teachers in England are employed by individual schools rather than directly by the Department for Education, meaning schools can consider other routes when recruiting teachers.
The department advised teachers who are no longer eligible for the QTS application service to consider alternative pathways into teaching in England.
