Music Education in School
It is only since 1990 that music has been a compulsory school subject in grades 1 to 6 of the elementary school and grades 7 and/or 8 of lower schools in every one of Spain’s autonomous regions. The number of music lessons in each grade is as follows:
Elementary school (grades 1-6): one lesson a week for all six grades.
Lower school:
- Grades 7 and 8: two lessons a week in some autonomous regions (e.g. Andalusia ). In other regions there are four lessons a week in only one of the two grades 7 and 8. In this case it is up to the school to decide whether it offers music in the 7th grade or the 8th grade.
- 9th grade: no music.
- 10th grade: three lessons a week. In this grade, music is optional for the pupils.
Upper school (grades 11 and 12): music is offered only as one optional subject among others (literature, visual arts, applied anatomy) for pupils choosing the Bachillerato de Artes. Pupils taking this option have the opportunity to choose one or more of the following four options (all four lessons a week):
- musical theory and musical practice
- history of music and dance
- analysis I,
- analysis II.
School-leaving examinations with university entitlement that consist of tasks set centrally by national ministries for all schools in Spain do not exist. This means that there is no obligatory core curriculum for the upper schools. For the subject of music this means for instance that there is no set canon of musical works that must be covered. Each school decides itself what should be included in or excluded from its curriculum (Proyecto Curricular de Centro). The differences between individual schools are consequently very large.
Secondary schools that place particular emphasis on music are few and far between; nor is there any particularly great concentration on music education at elementary schools. However, several schools offer extra-curricular activities in the field of music (learning an instrument, choirs, bands, dance), some of which the pupils have to pay for themselves. Cooperation with municipal and/or private music schools, or, in rural areas, with music societies and ensembles would be desirable here.