From 9 September 2026, Ghanaian and Nigerian-trained teachers can no longer use England’s direct online service for qualified teacher status. The change is tied to difficulties verifying school references, not a blanket ban on teaching in England.
The United Kingdom has removed Ghana and Nigeria from the list of countries whose teachers can use the direct online route to obtain qualified teacher status in England.
The change took effect on 9 September 2026 and also applies to teachers trained in India. It closes what had been the simplest route for eligible overseas-trained teachers to have their qualifications and experience assessed without completing another teacher-training programme.
But the widely shared claim that the UK has “banned” Ghanaian and Nigerian teachers is wrong.
Teachers from both countries can still work in England under certain conditions and pursue qualified teacher status through other routes. What has ended is their eligibility to use the Department for Education’s Apply for QTS in England professional-recognition service.
Why Ghana and Nigeria were removed
The updated Department for Education guidance says countries must satisfy two conditions to remain in the direct application system:
- They must have a national regulator capable of confirming a teacher’s professional standing.
- They must be able to provide employment references that meet the service’s verification requirements.
The UK government identified different problems for the three countries removed.
India was excluded because it does not have a national regulator that can confirm a teacher’s professional standing.
For Ghana and Nigeria, the issue was employment references. The Department for Education says more than 70% of applications from the two countries contained work-history references using public email services such as Gmail or Hotmail rather than an official school email domain.
According to the department, this forced assessors to spend additional time and resources verifying whether the information was genuine.
The distinction matters. The government did not say Ghana or Nigeria lacked teaching regulators.
Ghana’s National Teaching Council regulates the profession under the Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020 and operates teacher licensing and professional-standing services. Nigeria’s Teachers Registration Council performs a similar role and issues formal letters confirming that a teacher is registered, licensed and in good standing.
The problem identified by the UK sits lower down the chain: verifying that an applicant actually worked where they claimed, in the role and for the period stated.
This is not a ban on Ghanaian and Nigerian teachers
The change does not cancel teaching qualifications already earned in Ghana or Nigeria. It does not revoke QTS previously awarded, and it does not prevent schools in England from employing qualified teachers from either country.
Under England’s four-year rule, qualified teachers from outside the UK can generally teach for up to four years without QTS, including in schools where QTS is normally required. Certain alternative-provision settings are excluded.
After four years, QTS is required for many state-school positions. Academies, free schools and private schools can employ teachers without QTS, although the qualification often improves a candidate’s employment prospects.
Teachers also need the legal right to work in the UK. For most applicants, that means securing a job with a school that can sponsor a Skilled Worker visa. QTS by itself has never guaranteed a job or immigration permission.
What options remain available?
Ghanaian and Nigerian teachers still have three main routes to QTS.
1. Assessment-only QTS
Experienced teachers who already meet England’s teaching standards may apply through an approved assessment provider without completing another training programme.
Applicants generally need a bachelor’s degree, at least two years of teaching experience and qualifications equivalent to GCSE grade 4 in English and mathematics. Primary applicants also need a science qualification at the required level. Their experience must include teaching in two separate schools.
The assessment may involve lesson observations, a professional portfolio and written work. The process can take up to 12 weeks. Government guidance puts typical fees between £1,500 and £4,000, although overseas assessment can cost substantially more.
Teachers do not necessarily have to travel to England. A participating provider may assess them at their current school, but applicants must first find a provider willing and able to conduct an international assessment.
2. International qualified teacher status
International QTS allows candidates living outside England to train through an approved English provider while gaining practical experience in a school in their own country.
The qualification is based on the same standards as English QTS and leads automatically to QTS when completed. Current guidance lists tuition fees of approximately £7,950 to £9,950 for a nine-month full-time course. Department for Education loans and bursaries are not available for iQTS, although individual providers may offer scholarships.
This route requires more time and money than direct professional recognition, especially for teachers who are already fully qualified in their home countries.
3. Teacher training in England
Applicants can complete a teacher-training programme in England leading to QTS. This normally requires relocation, a student or other appropriate visa, living expenses and tuition fees ranging from £9,250 to about £32,000, depending on the provider and the applicant’s immigration status.
For many working teachers in Ghana and Nigeria, this will be the least accessible option.
The email-domain problem is bigger than individual teachers
The UK decision exposes a gap between international verification standards and the administrative systems used by many schools in Ghana and Nigeria.
A public email address does not automatically make a reference fraudulent. A headteacher may use Gmail because the school has no managed domain, no reliable institutional email system or no policy requiring staff to communicate through official accounts.
At the same time, an assessor cannot safely assume that an address such as a school name followed by “@gmail.com” belongs to an authorised official. Public accounts can be created by anyone and may remain active long after the person responsible has left a school.
The UK has responded by removing both countries from the direct route rather than verifying those references case by case. That reduces the department’s administrative burden, but transfers the cost to legitimate applicants who must now pursue longer and more expensive alternatives.
This is where the Ghanaian and Nigerian education authorities have work to do. National regulators can verify professional licensing, but schools and education services also need reliable institutional identities. Official domains, staff directories, centralised verification channels and secure employment records are no longer optional administrative extras when qualifications and employment histories must travel across borders.
What affected teachers should do now
Teachers preparing to apply should not pay unofficial agents who claim they can restore access to the closed direct route.
Instead, they should:
- review the official routes to QTS guidance;
- compare assessment-only QTS and iQTS providers carefully;
- obtain a UK ENIC statement of comparability if requested;
- secure professional-standing documentation from the NTC or TRCN;
- retain appointment letters, payslips, contracts and other evidence of employment;
- confirm costs directly with approved providers; and
- treat QTS, job applications and visa sponsorship as three separate processes.
The published guidance does not clearly explain how applications submitted before 9 September but still awaiting a decision will be handled. Applicants in that position should contact the Department for Education’s professional-recognition team directly rather than relying on social-media interpretations.
A setback, but not the end of the route to England
The removal is a genuine setback. Ghanaian and Nigerian teachers have lost access to a cheaper and more straightforward professional-recognition process, while teachers trained in South Africa, Jamaica and Singapore remain eligible under specified conditions.
Still, the accurate headline is narrower than the viral one.
The UK has not declared teachers from Ghana and Nigeria unqualified. It has decided that the current employment-reference system does not give assessors enough confidence to operate the direct QTS route efficiently.
For affected teachers, England remains possible, but the path has become more expensive, more complicated and more dependent on individual training providers. For Ghana and Nigeria, the episode is a warning that credible professional regulation must be supported by equally credible digital administration at school level.
