UK Changes Eligibility Criteria for Teachers’ Recruitment
The United Kingdom Department for Education has updated its document specifying the eligibility criteria for non-UK nationals who are interested in acquiring the Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) which will enable them find teaching jobs across the country.
This update was made few days to the opening of the portal as earlier announced. Recall that the United Kingdom government whose citizens can now apply for qualified teacher status through the Teaching Regulation Agency from February 2023.
Based on this, subjects like mathematics, sciences and some languages are the only available subjects qualified for the teach in UK programme.
The initial notice had read in part:
“From February 1, 2023, teachers who qualified in the following nine countries (listed above) will also be able to apply to the QTR through the TRA.
“This change is part of the launch of a new service. Teachers from all eligible countries will have to show they meet a consistent set of criteria for the award of the QTS. Over time, this route will be opened to qualified teachers from every country outside the UK.”
However, the updated version now stated that offer will not be opened to all subjects. According to the notice on the government portal, the will be a subject eligibility in some countries. Nigeria falls into this category of countries were subjects were restricted.Restricting subject eligibility in some countries
“To ensure we offer an efficient and consistent service to all applicants for QTS and prioritise the subject specialisms most needed by schools in England, we have decided to temporarily restrict subject eligibility. This will allow us to handle applications in a timely manner when we receive them.
“We will provide an update on our plans to open the service to other subject specialisms by May 2023.
“If you are a teacher with a qualification from Ghana, India, Jamaica, Nigeria, Singapore, South Africa or Zimbabwe, you must also have one of the following: a teaching qualification that meets the standard of a level 6 qualification qualifying you to teach children aged 11 to 16 in mathematics, languages or science.
A teaching qualification that meets the standard of a level 6 qualification qualifying you to teach children aged 11 to 16, and a bachelor’s degree made up of at least 50% mathematics, science or a language (excluding English) taught in English state schools, for example: French, German. Italian, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish”
