future upper secondary teachers receive an academic year of professional coursework similar to many other european countries but still only have a limited amount of teaching practice hours compared with up to hours in other european countries as indicated above european commission evidence suggests that the modules are theoryfocused offer limited preparation in modem teaching and assessment techniques and do not adequately cover important topics like teaching atrisk students and integrating roma children and students with special education needs stark and zoller european commission a the teaching staff statute that formed part of the education law upgraded the qualifications required to become a teacher to a new twoyear master of arts programme in teaching