FG Moves to Protect Credibility of Nigerian Qualifications After UK Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) Removal of Nigeria

The Federal Government says it is taking steps to protect the credibility of Nigerian academic qualifications following the United Kingdom’s decision to remove Nigeria from the application route for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) in England.

The Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Sa’id Ahmad, said Nigeria had already digitised its certificate authentication and verification process, allowing authorised users, including foreign authorities, to verify the authenticity and source of certificates issued by accredited Nigerian institutions.

She made this known during a briefing ahead of the 2026 World Teachers’ Day celebration and President’s Teachers’ and Schools Excellence Awards symposium in Abuja.

The UK Department for Education announced in September that Nigeria and Ghana had been removed from the QTS application route, amid concerns about the verification of work references submitted by applicants. According to reports, more than 70% of applications from the two countries contained references using public email addresses such as Gmail and Hotmail rather than official school email domains.

Prof. Ahmad said Nigeria had not been formally notified by the UK government about the reported restriction, noting that the country had learnt of it through media reports.

She, however, said the government had already automated its qualification verification system to make it easier for other countries to establish whether certificates presented by Nigerians are genuine and were issued by accredited institutions.

The Minister warned that fraudulent qualifications by a few individuals could damage the international standing of Nigerians with genuine credentials.

Source: The Guardian