Andalusia was the first autonomous community in Spain to launch artistic excellence classrooms, an initiative promoted by the Andalusian Government of Juanma Moreno in the 2019-20 academic year with the aim of enabling students with high abilities to reconcile and simultaneously pursue compulsory secondary education with professional studies in Music and Dance, as well as facilitating this compatibility for students with accredited talents in performance sports.
It was a historical claim by many families and also by public educational centers and their teaching staff, who had been conveying to the administration the need to support students with artistic or sporting talent and help them balance their compulsory education with the development of their abilities. The difficulties that existed until then had caused numerous students to abandon their careers in music, dance, or high-performance sports. In 2019, the Junta de Andalucía responded to this demand by creating specific classrooms in institutes where, within the school hours, teachers from conservatories traveled to teach music and dance classes, in full coordination between both centers and with a joint curricular organization for the students.
Since then, the Ministry of Educational Development has offered up to 570 places in this program, with at least one center per province having artistic excellence classrooms. In Cádiz and Almería, mixed classrooms have been set up for Music and Dance students. The participating centers, in addition to presenting a joint project, must have teaching staff with experience in collaborative work and educational innovation, as well as adequate infrastructure. It is essential that they share facilities or that there is sufficient proximity to allow for teacher mobility without loss of time. According to the approved project, students can attend classes at the institute, at the conservatory, or in both spaces.
The centers where students can study both subjects simultaneously are: the Kina Jiménez Professional Dance Conservatory along with the Julián Arcas Royal Conservatory of Music and the Alborán Secondary Education Institute, in Almería; the Maribel Gallardo Professional Dance Conservatory along with the Manuel de Falla Royal Professional Conservatory of Music and the San Severiano Secondary Education Institute, in Cádiz; the Músico Ziryab Professional Conservatory of Music and the López Neyra Secondary Education Institute, in Córdoba; the Ángel Barrios Professional Conservatory of Music and the Pedro Soto de Rojas Secondary Education Institute, in Granada; the Javier Perianes Professional Conservatory of Music and the Pablo Neruda Secondary Education Institute, in Huelva; the Ramón Garay Professional Conservatory of Music and the Fuente de la Peña Secondary Education Institute, in Jaén; the Manuel Carra Professional Conservatory of Music and the Sierra Bermeja Secondary Education Institute, in Málaga; and the Francisco Guerrero Professional Conservatory of Music and the Ciudad Jardín Secondary Education Institute, in Sevilla.
Balancing Academic and Athletic Life
The measures to facilitate the reconciliation of studies with high-performance sports practice were promoted by the counselor Javier Imbroda, head of the Education and Sports portfolios until his death in 2021. Secondary and Baccalaureate Institutes received the instruction to adapt exam dates, modify schedules or groups, and justify absences, among other measures, to facilitate the academic compatibility of students who practice high-performance, high-level, or base-performance sports.
Since 2019, absences due to participation in official national or international competitions, training, national team training camps, or activities included in national sports training plans are considered justified absences and do not affect the evaluation process in any case. When these students require educational support, their status as high-level or high-performance athletes is taken into account to reconcile studies with sports practice and the necessary support, and they may also request an exemption from Physical Education class.
Likewise, the Board created the network of Centers of Sports Educational Excellence in Andalusia (CEEDA), a pioneering project aimed at strengthening the reconciliation between academic and sports life. The program is developed in educational centers that have reference sports facilities and, where applicable, a school residence. It includes academic-sports follow-up tutoring and the collaboration of federations to develop specialization programs. In this way, available resources are optimized —educational centers, sports facilities, the Sports Medicine Center, federations, and clubs— with the aim of improving the results of Andalusian athletes in national and international competitions, ensuring academic continuity in stages of maximum sports dedication and, in many cases, avoiding the premature abandonment of sports practice.
The CEEDA are specialized in different disciplines. In Cádiz they focus on sailing, with the IES Mar de Cádiz, in El Puerto de Santa María, next to the Specialized Center for Sailing Training; in Granada, on athletics, with the IES Politécnico Hermenegildo Lanz and the Estadio de la Juventud; in Huelva, on badminton, with the IES Alto Conquero and spaces such as the Ciudad Deportiva de Huelva and the Palacio de Deportes Carolina Marín; in Jaén, on table tennis, with the IES Huarte de San Juan, in Linares, and the San José sports center; in Málaga, on triathlon, swimming, sea rowing and athletics (throws), with the IES Universidad Laboral de Málaga and the Carranque sports city; and in Seville, on tennis and rowing, with the IES V Centenario, the IES Bécquer and the IES Ramón Carande, next to the CAR de La Cartuja centers and the Specialized Center for Sports Training in Tennis.
