Ghanaian-Trained Teachers Lose Direct Route to English QTS: A Wake-Up Call for Professional Verification

A Ghanaian teacher may hold a university degree, a professional teaching qualification, years of classroom experience, and a valid teaching license.

Yet if an international regulator cannot easily verify that teacher’s employment history, all those credentials can suddenly become harder to recognise.

That is the uncomfortable lesson Ghana should draw from England’s recent change to its Qualified Teacher Status system.

From 9 September 2026, teachers trained to teach in Ghana, Nigeria or India will no longer be eligible to use England’s direct “Apply for QTS in England” professional recognition service. The United Kingdom’s Department for Education says countries that remain eligible must have a national regulator that can confirm professional standing and provide employment references that meet its verification requirements. GOV.UK

For Ghana, the stated problem is especially striking.

According to the Department for Education, more than 70 percent of applications from teachers trained in Ghana and Nigeria included work-history references from public email accounts such as Gmail or Hotmail, rather than an official school email domain. The department says these required assessors to spend more time and resources verifying applicants' information. GOV.UK

This should concern Ghana.
But it should not lead to sensational headlines suggesting Ghanaian teachers have been banned from teaching in England.

They have not.
The more useful question is:
Why should verifying the professional history of a qualified Ghanaian teacher be difficult in the first place?

That is the conversation Ghana should now have.

1. What exactly changed - and what did not

The first responsibility is to describe the change accurately.

England has not banned Ghanaian teachers from obtaining Qualified Teacher Status altogether.

Ghanaian-trained teachers have lost one pathway: the direct professional-recognition service known as Apply for QTS in England. GOV.UK

Other routes remain available.
The Department for Education currently identifies four broad pathways for teachers or trainees outside the United Kingdom: the direct recognition service, Assessment Only QTS, teacher training in England, and International Qualified Teacher Status (iQTS). Teachers who are no longer eligible for the direct service may still be able to pursue one of these alternative routes depending on their qualifications, experience and circumstances. GOV.UK

For example, Assessment Only QTS allows experienced teachers who already meet England’s Teachers’ Standards to demonstrate their competence without completing another full teacher-training programme. International QTS is delivered through approved English providers in partnership with schools outside the UK and leads to English QTS. GOV.UK

That distinction is important.
The issue, therefore, is not that Ghanaian teachers suddenly became unqualified.

Nor does the change mean Ghanaian teaching qualifications no longer exist.

The issue is verification within one professional-recognition pathway.

Because verification is the issue, Ghana should treat this as an administrative and professional-regulation warning rather than merely an immigration or international-relations story.

2. Why did professional verification become the problem?

England’s Department for Education's explanation deserves careful attention.

For Ghana and Nigeria, the problem identified was not the absence of a teacher regulator. Ghana has the National Teaching Council, which regulates the teaching profession and operates Teacher Portal Ghana.

The NTC already provides public tools to verify teacher licenses and maintains a register of licensed teachers. Its Teacher Portal also processes Letters of Professional Standing, which are important documents for teachers seeking professional recognition elsewhere. Teacher Portal Ghana

That is significant infrastructure.
The difficulty England identified concerned something different: work-history references.

If a reference claiming to come from a school arrives from an ordinary Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail account, an international assessor faces an obvious question:

How can we know that the person writing this reference represents the school?

That does not mean the reference is fraudulent.

Many genuine Ghanaian educators and school administrators use public email accounts because those are the tools readily available to them.

But international credential verification depends not merely on whether information is true. It depends on whether the information can be independently authenticated efficiently and consistently.

This is where the matter becomes uncomfortable.

Ghana Education Service itself announced a corporate email system using the ges.gov.gh domain years ago, explaining that customised institutional domains strengthen corporate identity, credibility and trust. The system was intended for GES staff and senior high schools. Ghana Education Service

GES currently publishes official ges.gov.gh addresses for its headquarters and regional directorates, and its Human Resource Management Division uses an official institutional email. Ghana Education Service

If that infrastructure exists, then the obvious question is:

Why are so many international teacher references apparently still being issued through public email accounts?

That deserves investigation, not blame.
Perhaps some schools have not fully implemented institutional email systems.

Perhaps individual administrators have official addresses but rarely use them.

Perhaps access, training, password management, or technical support is inconsistent.

Perhaps reference procedures have never been standardised nationally.

Whatever the explanation, the consequence is now international.

3. This is bigger than QTS
Ghana should resist treating this as an isolated problem affecting only teachers who want to work in England.

Professional verification is becoming increasingly important across a global labour market.

Teachers move between countries.
University graduates apply for postgraduate study overseas.

Nurses, engineers, lecturers and other professionals seek licenses and employment abroad.

Employers request references.
Universities verify transcripts.
Regulatory bodies confirm professional standing.

Immigration systems examine employment histories.

In all these situations, the underlying question is becoming the same:

Can the institution that issued the document be identified, contacted, and trusted?

That means digital credibility is becoming part of professional credibility.

A beautifully printed letter carrying a school stamp may look official in Ghana.

But an international regulator working electronically may care more about whether the message came from an identifiable institutional domain, whether the signatory’s position can be verified, whether the institution appears in an official directory, and whether the professional’s license can be checked electronically.

This is one reason digital transformation in education administration matters.

It is not only about eliminating paper.
It is also about creating records that can be verified beyond the organisation that produced them.

For Ghanaian professionals competing internationally, that distinction matters enormously.

4. Ghana needs verifiable digital professional records

The encouraging part is that Ghana is not starting from zero.

The National Teaching Council already operates a digital Teacher Portal.

Teacher licenses can be checked publicly by license number. The portal also maintains a licensed-teacher register and provides mechanisms connected to professional standing. Teacher Portal Ghana

GES already uses official institutional email domains at various administrative levels. Ghana Education Service

These are important foundations.
The next step should be to connect these systems more deliberately to international professional verification.

Imagine a Ghanaian pre-tertiary teacher applying for professional recognition abroad.

Instead of asking the applicant to chase multiple people for letters, an authorised international regulator could, with the teacher’s consent, verify:

• the teacher’s professional license.
• current license status.
• employing school.
• dates of service.
• teaching role or subject.
• relevant promotion history.
• and professional standing.

A reference letter could include a secure verification code or QR code linking to an official government record.

School heads and human-resource officers at pre-tertiary could issue employment references through authenticated institutional accounts.

Pre-tertiary schools could appear in a searchable official directory with verified contact details.

Reference templates could carry unique identifiers that let receiving institutions quickly confirm they are genuine.

None of this requires publishing teachers’ private information openly.

Proper systems can protect privacy while allowing authorised verification.

Indeed, Ghana’s existing Teacher Portal demonstrates that digital professional verification is already possible. The task is to make the ecosystem more comprehensive, interoperable and internationally useful. Teacher Portal Ghana

5. The lesson should be reform, not defensiveness

Ghana has every right to seek clarification from England where necessary.

Teacher unions, regulators, and government institutions may reasonably want to understand whether improved verification arrangements could have addressed the new policy instead of removing Ghana from the direct route.

But defensiveness alone would be a missed opportunity.

The Department for Education has publicly identified the problem it encountered.

It says more than 70 percent of Ghanaian and Nigerian applications contained work-history references from public email accounts rather than official school domains. GOV.UK

Ghana should respond by eliminating that problem.

Not because England demands it.
Because Ghanaian professionals deserve administrative systems that make their legitimate qualifications and experience easy to verify anywhere in the world.

The National Teaching Council, Ghana Education Service, Ministry of Education, pre-tertiary schools and teacher unions could collaborate on a national professional-verification framework.

At minimum, that framework should include:
Institutional email access. Every pre-tertiary school and authorised officer responsible for issuing professional references should have a functioning official address.

Standardised employment references. Ghana could establish a nationally recognised template containing verifiable institutional information.

Digital authentication. Employment and professional-standing documents should carry secure verification mechanisms.

Clear responsibility. Teachers should know exactly which office is authorised to confirm employment history to overseas regulators.

International responsiveness. Verification requests from foreign regulators should have defined processing times and dedicated channels.

Training. Pre-Tertiary Headteachers, administrators and HR officers should understand why an ordinary Gmail account can create credibility difficulties when communicating with foreign professional bodies.

These are practical reforms.
And importantly, they would benefit far more people than teachers seeking English QTS.

Ghanaian qualifications should travel with confidence

Ghanaian teachers have served successfully in classrooms worldwide.

Their competence should not be confused with weaknesses in administrative verification.

A teacher can be highly qualified and still come from a system whose records outsiders find hard to authenticate.

Those are two different issues.
The September QTS change should therefore not become a referendum on the quality of Ghanaian teachers.

It should become a referendum on the quality of the systems that verify them.

Ghana has already invested in teacher licensing, digital portals and official institutional communication.

Now those pieces need to work together well enough that a teacher should not lose an international opportunity because an assessor cannot easily verify a reference.

Professional mobility increasingly depends on trusted digital records.

Our education administration must recognize that reality.

The most productive response to England’s decision is therefore neither outrage nor resignation.

It is reform.
Ghana should build a professional verification system so reliable that universities, regulators, and employers worldwide can quickly, securely, and confidently authenticate the credentials and experience of a Ghanaian teacher.

Because ultimately, the real question is not:

Why does another country want to verify Ghanaian teachers?

The better question is:
Why should verifying a qualified Ghanaian professional ever be difficult?

About the Author
Shadrack Agyapong is a Ghanaian mathematics and STEM educator based in the United States, with teaching experience in Ghana and outside Ghana. He currently teaches mathematics in the U.S. and is pursuing doctoral studies related to Instructional Technology and Mathematics Education. He is teacher-certified in Ghana, multiple U.S. states, and multiple Canadian provinces, including Ontario, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and Saskatchewan, and holds Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) in England. His professional and research interests include mathematics and STEM education, educational technology, teacher professional development, digital transformation, environmental sustainability, and education-system improvement. He writes from a practitioner-researcher perspective and in his personal capacity.

Shadrack Agyapong
Mathematics & STEM Educator | Education Researcher

U.S.-Based Ghanaian Educator
Ghana Certified Teacher | USA Certified Teacher | Canada Certified Teacher | Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) in England, UK

Sources for Editorial Verification

• England’s Department for Education states that, effective 9 September 2026, teachers trained in Ghana, India and Nigeria are no longer eligible to use the direct Apply for QTS in England professional-recognition service. For Ghana and Nigeria, DfE reports that more than 70 per cent of applications contained work-history references using public email addresses rather than official school domains. GOV.UK
• DfE separately confirms that alternative QTS pathways remain available, including Assessment Only QTS, teacher training in England and International QTS, subject to eligibility requirements. GOV.UK
• Ghana’s National Teaching Council already operates digital verification infrastructure through Teacher Portal Ghana, including public license verification, the licensed-teacher register and Letters of Professional Standing. Teacher Portal Ghana
• GES has also previously established a corporate ges.gov.gh email system intended to strengthen official identity and trusted institutional communication, while current headquarters and regional contacts use the official GES domain. Ghana Education Service