UK bars Teachers trained in Nigeria, Ghana from applying for QTS

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Teachers who received their training in Nigeria and Ghana are no longer eligible to apply for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) in the United Kingdom, a qualification required to teach in many schools across England.

The new rule took effect on September 9.

The UK Department for Education said teaching qualifications and professional experience are assessed against strict requirements before QTS is awarded.

The department explained that the assessment process is designed to ensure that only teachers who meet its required quality standards are granted Qualified Teacher Status.

To remain eligible, a country must have a national regulator that can confirm a teacher’s professional standing and be able to provide authenticated references.

The UK education department said Nigeria and Ghana failed to meet the second requirement.

“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.

“This means assessors spend additional time and resources trying to verify information provided in applications.”

About 90 percent of applications are assessed within 12 months.

India was also scrapped 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.

QTS QUALIFICATIONS

To apply for QTS, teachers must have a valid passport that has not expired; an undergraduate degree equal to a UK bachelor’s degree; a recognition as a professional teacher in the country where they completed teacher training; and a completion of all mandatory induction processes to gain full teacher registration in the country where they qualified.

Teachers must also provide qualifications to show they can teach children aged anywhere between 5 and 16 years old; have at least one school year (nine months) of experience employed as a teacher in any country, but must be from after they first became qualified to teach; and references that can confirm work history and have an email address that uses the school’s domain.

Depending on the country that they trained to teach in, they may be required to have qualifications to show they can teach children aged anywhere between 11 and 16 years old and have a teaching specialism in one of the following subjects: maths, science, biology, chemistry, physics, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin, Russian, or Spanish.

However, since teachers in England are employed by individual schools rather than the education department, some schools may consider alternative qualification routes, although QTS remains a status preferred by most schools.

The department said teachers who are not eligible to use the apply for QTS in England service can explore other routes.