Presentation of ́La Escuela del Cubillas ́, Muhammad Gutierrez, Granada.

Presentation of ́LA ESCUELA DEL CUBILLAS ́.

Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies.
Granada, December 23, 2016.
Muhammad Gutiérrez Gamo.

Bismillahi rrahmani arrahim.
La ilaha illah Allah Muhammad Rasulullah.
Wa la haula wa la quata illah billah.

Assalamualaikum.
Thank you all very much for having attended this event here today.
After the presentation of Emir Malik in which he has expressed the framework in which this educational project is developed and the form it will take.
I am going to talk about the school in its essence, in its educational aspect, about what we intend to happen in this school, about what it is intended to transmit and how it is going to be done.
As Muslims, we are aware that in order to ensure the protection and growth of Islam in our land, our young people must receive a correct transmission of the Deen from an early age.
The educational issue is something fundamental within any community.
The purpose of creating this school is:

• To protect the magnet and the heart of our young people.
• To provide them with a high level of academic knowledge.
• To acquire, or form an exemplary character and role model.

A comprehensive school, in the sense that it attends to the fundamental aspects of a person: spiritual, intellectual and physical.
Nowadays, most Muslims are forced to take their children to state schools, where a series of values and a conception of life are transmitted that in many cases is opposed to the values of the deen of Islam that the family, at home, intends to transmit.
This duality between what is transmitted at home and what is transmitted at school can lead to a contradiction, a fragmentation in the identity of the youngest when their identity is still being formed.
Therefore, we consider it our responsibility to offer an alternative to the state education system that allows our young people to grow up in a healthy and protected environment.
May there be a harmony, a connection between the family, the school and the community, where the high values of the Deen of Islam and the sunnah of our prophet Muhammad SAWS, are the driving force of their formation.
In short, we want men and women to emerge who, from a strong magnet, an understanding of the world in which we live, an adequate academic training and exquisite conduct, are capable of transforming the society that surrounds us. Principles of the school. The principles of this school, on which this educational project is based, are the following:

• To resume the importance of a direct, face-to-face transmission between teacher and student, establishing a personal relationship of trust, respect and affection.
• Return to the traditional vision of existence based on Divine Revelation: in tawhid in the various knowledge, activities and elements that make up the school.
• The formation of character.
  The motto of the school is the well-known hadith of the Prophet (pbuh): “I have been sent to perfect the noble qualities of character.”
• The hope of perfection, that is, that everyone can achieve the goals they set for themselves, that, by Allah, you can overcome all the obstacles that may come upon you.
• The education of a new generation, that is, in addition to confirming the identity of each individual, forging groups of young people united by very strong ties, affectively, of mutual help and sharing of high expectations and aspirations; with the awareness that they are part of a privileged and responsible generation, of enormous significance at this historical moment.
• The pride of being Muslims.
  The legitimate satisfaction that arises from the appreciation that everything related to Islam and Muslims deserves.
• Coherence between the teachings of the Qur’an and the contents that are worked on in the school.
  An integral experience of the Deen in school, based on: ISLAM: the five pillars of the Deen.
  IMAN: full trust in Allah, a sincere tawheed.
  IHSAN: Excellence in behavior and conduct.
• The assumption of our European cultural tradition and the ability, through it, and its language, to understand the meaning of Islam.
• The object of the school is Truth.
  And the teacher-student relationship is a transaction, a transfer of energy and knowledge.
  We both follow the same path of accompaniment and mutual existential encouragement on the path of living.
  The value of imitation as the means of transmission par excellence.

Methodology. The methodology of this school, the one we consider most appropriate to convey all this that we are talking about this morning, is based on a series of principles that have been forged over the last 25 years through the different educational projects that the CIE has carried out.
And whose main pedagogical reference, the person who has studied for years and continues to do so today about the best way to educate young Muslims, is sidi Muhammad Mukhtar.
These methodological principles are as follows:

• A comprehensive education: where home, school, and community work together to promote a complete growth of the person, advancing in five fundamental aspects: intellectual, physical, spiritual (the ibada), behavior (the adab) and courage (courage).
• Personalized education: each child is a unique being and differentiated from the others, with different tastes and interests and with their own way of learning, so the teaching-learning process is given in a way that respects the learning rhythms of each child, giving each one what is necessary for this process to occur in the best way.
• A teaching model based on centers of interest and project work: a learning process focused on the needs and interests of the child, thus guaranteeing their motivation and curiosity.
  This is done through project work that is usually linked to topics related to social and natural sciences, these topics can be proposed by a child, by the group or by the teacher.
  In the projects, all areas are worked on in a globalized way, revolving around the topic of interest.
  The various aspects of the center of interest are presented in many ways, so that children can discover, investigate and see the ways in which knowledge is accessed, while getting used to doing complete things, taking into account many factors and acquiring their own order when doing their work.
  In short, learning to learn.
• Great importance to the development of language: of vital importance in all its manifestations and working on it with a comprehensive method of reading and writing, starting from the global to the specific.
• Empowerment of one’s own talents: observe and detect what own talents each of the children has, in order to cultivate them from school and from home.
• Freedom: children should enjoy freedom in terms of the way they work and the diversity of possibilities offered to them.
• Preparation of their own books: the work is not based on textbooks but the students compose their own books, based on their own experiences and discoveries, using a wide variety of resources.
• The role of the teacher: The teacher as facilitator and guide in the child’s learning, providing the resources for meaningful learning to occur.

Some of the essential features of this school are as follows:

• Quality of the teaching staff: importance in the selection of teachers, who must have high human and academic qualities, a firm vocation and a clear awareness of their mission, as well as high expectations for themselves and future generations.
• Care for each student: Through a consistent network of personal and academic tutorial care mechanisms.
• Cultural richness: The school must be full of activities that respond to the diverse interests of students and teachers, complementary to the academic curriculum.
• Contact with nature: Knowledge of nature through a genuine link with creation.
  Recognition of the countless signs of Allah in nature.
  Connection with seasonal cycles and with life, and assumption of responsibility for the care of our environment.
• High academic level: which allows them to later access any branch of the university, or any other field of knowledge they wish.
• Education of all talents: Balanced training in all branches of knowledge: Humanities, Languages, Arts, Experimental Sciences and Technology while encouraging each person to find, and be helped to satisfy, their natural inclination towards what is easiest and most attractive.
• Sports: The decisive importance of physical activity for the formation of character.
  For boys this is the function of fencing and team sports, especially rugby, cricket.
  It is the company of those who are recognized for their honor.
  For girls, the development of a healthy and active body will be sought through sports and dance.
• Climate of authority and discipline: Relationship of respect and affection between teacher and student.
  Authority is a quality that is acquired from a young age and internalized as self-discipline.
  To assume responsibilities, to associate the relationship between authority and capacity for service to others.
• Home system: we are working on the development of an organisational model for pupils based on the house system of British public schools.
  An organisational model that favours a relationship of mutual help between pupils of different ages, better care for each of them and the security of an identity group.
• Bilingualism: It will be a bilingual school.
  With the intention that students leave their school stage with a command of the English language.
• International school: so that students from abroad can attend it with the possibility of studying in English and with the option of internal residence for them.

Today, there is a pedagogical team that is working on the development and improvement of each of these aspects. Brief description of the character of the boys’ school and the character of the girls’ school. The school for boys aims to achieve the qualities of nobility. The fullness of the manhood of the Messenger of Allah, pbuh. The perfection of character. The invigoration of the individual. The sense of brotherhood. Boys and young men today lack a clear male role model. Society in general and the educational world in particular are not adequately attending to the proper and natural way in which boys grow and develop. The result of this failure to adapt to their nature is the waste of their immense learning potential and the continuous increase in the cases of young men in the statistics on learning disorders and behavioural problems. Our task is to build men with sufficient existential courage to display in this life the gifts and qualities that Allah has bestowed upon them and to transform the society in which they live. As for girls’ school, we see that young women today face many challenges, values have been altered and women’s contribution to the family is undervalued. Positive traits of women such as compassion and caring for life will be promoted. In addition, the necessary skills for a training that makes them lucid and independent women, whose inner center is based on Allah and the Sunnah, and, together with Muslim men, are committed to the improvement of society. Organization and structure of the school. As already mentioned, in this school it will be possible to study the primary, secondary and baccalaureate stages.
And the school will be divided, in turn, into the school for boys and the school for girls, separate and independent of each other.
To offer a high level of personalized attention, the ratio will be 16 students per class.
In primary school, both for boys and girls, there will be two lines, i.e. two classrooms (2 classes) for each primary grade.
This means a total capacity of 200 male and 200 female students.
A total of 400 students in the primary stage.
In the secondary and baccalaureate stage there will be three lines, three classrooms for each year of secondary school and another three for each year of baccalaureate.
That means a capacity of 300 male and 300 female students.
A total of 600 students in the secondary and baccalaureate stage.
Therefore, this educational project will have a total capacity of approximately 1000 students. The beginning of school. The school, in its first year of operation, will start with the first two grades of primary for boys and the first two grades of primary for girls.
And each year a higher academic year will be introduced.
That is, in the second year the third year of primary school will be introduced, in the third year the fourth year of primary school will be introduced, and so on until the entire educational stage is covered from 1st grade of primary school to 2nd year of high school.
And this is the end of the brief presentation of this important and ambitious educational project.
Since it will be, Allah willing, the first formal education school in Spain developed by Muslims and for Muslims.
Where there will be no contradiction between the curriculum and the revelation.
Allah has favored us with the great gift of Islam in this time and place and we have to do what is in our power to improve our situation as Muslims, the situation of the ummah and the situation of society in general.
Because we know that the solution to all the evils of this time is to be found in the establishment of the Deen of Islam in its fullness and in the Sunnah of the Messenger Muhammad saws.
We ask Allah to help us in this task.
Assalamu alaikum.
Mohammed Gutierrez Gamo.
www.fundacionalandalus.org