"Why I Love My School"

 It's 5:00am and the alarm from my watch rings, upon opening my eyes I hear the sounds of birds from a very quiet morning at Mtakuja Secondary School, It's another exciting school day. I wake up, I get ready and go for the morning devotion to thank God for the brand new day. After the morning devotion, I go straight to the class for private morning studies to remind myself of the concepts that I learned about in the previous day. 

At 8:00am is when the normal classes officially begin, my mentors get into the class and we start learning. I normally love class time, and this is because at Mtakuja Secondary School we use  Quest Forward as a learning platform. Quest Forward Learning is a learning platform that emphasizes on the acquisition of skills, habits, and mindset. 

what's so interesting about Quest Forward Learning is, as learners we can still work on our own even in the absence of our mentors, this was evident during the COVID-19 Pandemic where all schools in Tanzania had to be closed. Although other students were struggling at home, the case was different with us because we could still continue working and communicate with our mentors. Studying without the physical presence of our mentors was highly supported by an App called "Quest", this App contains various learning materials with proper guiding instructions as per the requirement of the Tanzania syllabus.

Quest Forward Learning students are guided by various guiding principles, of which one of them is "We Learn Better Together". This principle emphasizes Quest Forward Students to respect other people's thoughts and ideas as they can build and strengthen a person's understanding. In this case, we normally sit in groups facing each other and not in rows facing the blackboard. This sitting style helps us to discuss easily, any concept which is difficult, on my side I am benefiting a lot from this sitting style as when we are discussing different challenging questions arise which need us as a group to find solutions on.

Normally at the end of every lesson, we produce Artifacts. These artifacts are produced out of our own understanding from the concept that has been discussed in the class, an artifact can take different forms such as, Poems, Songs, Drawings, Models and Role Plays. These artifacts are very important as they are a summary of what a learner has understood during the lesson, and by doing so helps a learner to easily understand and remember the concept. 

Apart from preparing artifacts, we can also play different games that are related to the concept that we have been discussing in class. These games are normally very interesting, simple, funny, and refreshing, the can easily be remembered as all of us loves playing.

I believe, for me as a Learner with dreams and ambitions, there would be no other better place for me to be nurtured other than Mtakuja Secondary School under the Quest Forward Learning Platform. 

I wish to thank my parents who have always been so supportive of me, great thanks to my Mentors and other school workers who always play a vital role in raising me well. Lastly, my deepest gratitude goes to whoever will spare their time to read my article. It is my hope that you have got something from the experience I have shared.

Glory Emmanuel Lyatuu

Form Three Student at Mtakuja Secondary School (2020)