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The Community of Madrid offers Spanish classes free of charge at many of the Centers for Adult Education in the area. Here is a rough guide to enrolling yourself in one of these classes.

A few pointers before we begin:
• First, the reason I’m writing this guide is because enrolling in these classes can be both overwhelming and confusing. I’ll try to simply the process, but believe me, you’ll probably run into a snag or two along the way. Unfortunately, it’s the nature of dealing with government-run programs in Spain.
• Speaking of which, a particular point of frustration that I should mention right off the bat is that you probably will not know your class schedule until you’re well into the process of enrolling for a class. I’d suggest having a Plan B from the start in case these classes don’t work out. There are a number of low-cost Spanish classes available in Madrid (C.E.E., IH, and others).

STEP 1: Get a list of schools and the classes they offer
You can get a list of the Centers for Adult Education (Centros de Educación de Personas Adultas or C.E.P.A. in Spanish) in one of two ways.

Visit the Consejería de Educación de la Comunidad de Madrid
c/ Alcalá, 32
28014 Madrid
Tel.: 91 720 00 00
Fax: 91 720 02 04

Download this document (3.6mb)
In most cases, downloading this guide will be the easier of the two methods, but it doesn’t give you the benefit of having someone available in case you have questions, and the document is from 2003-2004, so it’s a little out of date. A newer guide hasn’t been released, so it’s the best we have available on the internet to date. If nothing else, it can at least give you a good idea of what’s available.

STEP 2: Choose a school
Flip through the guide and look for a school that suits your needs. Location was a priority for me, so I looked first at the Center for Adult Education in the Moncloa area because I live near Plaza de España.

Next, I checked to see if this school offered Spanish classes for Immigrants (Español para inmigrantes), which it did. The guide said the school offered Spanish classes at Levels 1 and 2 (nivel I y II). I’ve discovered, however, that these levels don’t mean much. After completing Level 2 at the school at Moncloa, I switched to another school the next semester to take Level 3. The teachers at the new school told me that I would actually be in Level 4, not level 3, because the levels differ from school to school.

STEP 3: Call or visit the school
The next step is to call or visit the school to find out what documents you will need to apply for the classes and to take a placement test. This registration process (or matrícula in Spanish) happens twice a year: in September and in late January to early February. Classes start in early October and mid-February.

Both times I’ve enrolled in classes, I’ve needed a form of identification (either my passport or my residency card) and 2 passport photos. At one of the schools they gave me a piece of paper that I had to take to my bank to pay registration fees (something like 1,25€) into a government bank account. Unfortunately, paying government fees in cash is not allowed. I’ve heard this is to prevent corruption.

STEP 4: Check back when the classes are posted
Once the testing period is finished, the schools post a list of students in each class. The class schedules should be posted at this time as well.

STEP 5: Enjoy your free Spanish classes!