The UK education department says it removed Nigeria and Ghana-trained teachers from the list of countries eligible for its direct qualified teacher status (QTS) service, due to the use of public email addresses for work history references in applications, rather than official domains.
The department disclosed this in a statement on its website,
where it said teachers from the two African countries will no longer be
eligible to apply for the United Kingdom’s QTS, a legal requirement to teach in
several schools in England.
“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 stated.
“This means assessors spend additional time and resources
trying to verify information provided in applications.”
The exemption took effect on September 9.
The UK government previously expanded QTS eligibility to
countries including Nigeria and Ghana in 2023, according to an annual report by
the UK teaching agency.
According to the UK education department, teaching
qualifications and experience are assessed against strict requirements to
ensure that they confirm QTS for teachers who meet the requirements.
To remain eligible, a country must have a national regulator
that can confirm a teacher’s professional standing and provide authenticated
references.
About 90 percent of applications are assessed within 12
months.
India was also removed from the list for not having a
national regulator that can confirm professional standing.
South Africa is now the only African country on the list of
eligible countries.
“We must be confident that the information applicants
provide is genuine. This helps ensure that overseas teachers awarded qualified
teacher status have the skills and experience needed to teach in schools in
England,” the department said.
It added that teachers who are not eligible to use the
“Apply for QTS in England” service can explore other routes.
HOW TO APPLY
To apply for QTS, teachers must have a valid passport, an
undergraduate degree equal to a UK bachelor’s degree, recognition as a
professional teacher in the country where they completed teacher training, and
completion of all mandatory induction processes to gain full teacher
registration in the country where they qualified.
Teachers must also provide evidence that they can teach
children aged 5 to 16 years, have at least one school year (nine months) of
experience employed as a teacher in any country.
However, the experience must be from after they first became
qualified to teach, and they must provide references that can confirm their
work history and have an email address that uses the school’s domain.
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