Yoga Alliance explained: what RYS and RYT really mean

Search for a yoga teacher training and within a minute you meet a wall of acronyms: RYS 200, RYT 500, YACEP. They look like qualifications from an examining board. They are not, and knowing exactly what they are makes choosing a course much easier.

What Yoga Alliance is

Yoga Alliance is a non-profit membership organisation, founded in the United States in the 1990s. It keeps a public directory of schools and teachers who have paid to be listed and whose paperwork meets its published standards.

It is not a government agency. It does not licence anyone, and in most countries — India included — no licence is needed to teach yoga at all. It is best understood as a directory with a syllabus template attached.

RYS, RYT and the rest of the letters

Two things surprise people. First, graduating from a registered school does not make you an RYT: you have to apply and pay an annual fee yourself. Second, "certified" and "registered" are not the same word. Your certificate comes from the school. The registration is a listing.

What is actually checked

To register, a school submits its syllabus, its hour allocations and the credentials of its lead trainers, and pays. There is no inspection and no visit. Nobody sits in the room. Complaints are handled after the fact.

This is worth sitting with, because it decides how much weight the letters deserve. Registration tells you a school filled in a form correctly and paid a fee. It does not tell you whether the teaching is good, whether the trainer is present all month, whether adjustments are safe, or whether twelve students get attention and forty do not.

Where registration does matter

• Teaching insurance. Some insurers in the US, UK and Australia use RYT status as a shortcut when quoting.
• Studio and gym jobs. Chains and larger studios often ask for it because it is an easy box to tick when hiring.
• Some teaching visas and jobs abroad list it among their requirements.
• Directory visibility for teachers who want to be found through the registry.

If your plan is to teach at a chain studio in North America, register. The fee is small next to the cost of the training, and arguing about the principle with a hiring manager is a poor use of your time.

Where it does not

It does not matter for teaching privately, for teaching your own community classes, for retreats, or for most work in India and much of Europe. It does not make you a better teacher, and its absence does not make a school worse. Several of the oldest and most respected lineage schools in India have never registered, and some left the registry deliberately, arguing that a Western membership body is a strange authority for a tradition that predates it by a few thousand years.

In India, the government's own scheme, Yoga Certification Board certification under the Ministry of Ayush, is a separate track aimed mainly at teachers working in India.

Judging a school that is not registered

Without the letters you have to look at the things that actually decide a training. That is no bad thing, because you should look at them anyway:

• Who teaches, and how long they have taught. Is the lead teacher in the room every day, or a name on a page?
• Group size. Twelve students and one teacher is a different course from forty and an assistant.
• Lineage. A clear tradition — Sivananda, Iyengar, Krishnamacharya, Ashtanga — tells you what you will be taught.
• The syllabus, in hours. Ask for it. Compare against the four subjects.
• Graduates. Ask to speak to two from the last year. A confident school hands over the contacts.
• What the certificate says, and whether the school is honest about where it is recognised.

The 12-point checklist sets this out as questions you can send in an email, and the red flags article covers the answers that should worry you.

Where our school stands

Santhi School of Yoga & Vedanta Studies is not a Yoga Alliance Registered Yoga School. Graduates of our 28-day, 200-hour yoga teacher training in Kerala receive the school's own certificate, signed by the teacher who taught them, after a month in a group of a dozen or so in the Sivananda tradition.

We say so plainly on every page, because the worst outcome for a student is to find out after paying. If RYT registration is essential for your plans, choose a registered school with a clear conscience; it is a legitimate requirement. If what you want is a month of traditional practice with a teacher who is in the room every day, come and ask us the twelve questions.

Common questions

What does RYS 200 mean?

Registered Yoga School at the 200-hour level: the school has submitted a syllabus meeting Yoga Alliance standards and paid its fee. Nobody inspects the school or observes its teaching.

Is Yoga Alliance certification necessary to teach yoga?

No. In most countries, including India, no registration is legally required to teach yoga. It helps mainly with insurance in some countries, with jobs at chain studios, and with a few visa applications.

What is the difference between certified and registered?

Your certificate is issued by the school that trained you. Registration is a paid listing in the Yoga Alliance directory, which you apply for yourself after graduating from a registered school.

Is a yoga teacher training worth doing if the school is not Yoga Alliance registered?

Yes, if the teaching is good. Judge the lead teacher, the group size, the lineage, the syllabus in hours and past graduates. Only avoid an unregistered school if you specifically need RYT status for insurance or a job.