Shule yetu iko upande wa mashariki wa mji.

Iko is used for location: it means is located / is situated.
So Shule yetu iko upande wa mashariki wa mji means the school is located on the eastern side of the town.

By contrast, ni is usually used to identify or equate something, like Shule yetu ni kubwa (Our school is big) or Yeye ni mwalimu (He/She is a teacher). It is not the normal choice for saying where something is.

Shule yetu literally means school our.

In Swahili, possessives usually come after the noun, not before it as in English. So:

• shule yetu = our school
• mji wetu = our town
• kitabu changu = my book

This word order is completely normal in Swahili.

The possessive stem for our is -etu, but in Swahili it has to agree with the noun class of the thing being possessed.

Shule belongs to the N-class (often called class 9/10 in grammar books), and with that class, -etu becomes yetu.

So:

• shule yetu = our school
• nyumba yetu = our house

The y- is the agreement part.

Upande wa means the side of.

So:

• upande wa mashariki = the eastern side / the side of the east
• upande wa kaskazini = the northern side
• upande wa kulia = the right side

In this sentence, it helps express on the east side of the town.

Because Swahili often links nouns together with a connector like wa, and each relationship gets its own connector.

So the phrase breaks down like this:

• upande wa mashariki = side of the east / eastern side
• mashariki wa mji = east of the town

Put together:

• upande wa mashariki wa mji = the eastern side of the town

A useful way to think of it is that Swahili often repeats of-type links where English may use a single adjective like eastern.

Basically, mashariki means east. But in context, English may translate it as eastern.

So:

• mashariki = east
• upande wa mashariki = the east side / the eastern side

Swahili often uses a noun-based structure where English uses an adjective.

Mji can mean town or city, depending on context.

So wa mji can be understood as:

• of the town
• of the city

If the meaning has already been given to the learner as town, that is a perfectly normal translation.

Swahili does not usually have separate words for a, an, or the.

Whether something is understood as a school, the school, a town, or the town is usually clear from context.

So:

• shule can mean school or the school
• mji can mean town, the town, city, or the city

That is very normal in Swahili.

Shule is in the N-class (class 9/10). This matters because other words connected to it must agree with it.

In this sentence, that affects:

• yetu in shule yetu
• i- in iko

So the sentence is not just a string of words: it has agreement built into it.

The i- is the subject agreement prefix for a singular noun in the same class as shule.

So:

• shule → class 9 singular
• class 9 subject prefix → i-
• i + ko = iko

That is why the verb matches shule.

Yes, you may also hear ipo in location sentences. Both iko and ipo can be used for is located / is in a place, though grammar books sometimes explain a slight difference in nuance.

For a learner, the important point is this:

• iko in this sentence is correct and natural.
• Its job is to show location.

So you should understand Shule yetu iko upande wa mashariki wa mji as a normal way to say where the school is.

You should learn this basic pattern as the normal one:

• Shule yetu = noun + possessive
• iko = location verb
• upande wa mashariki wa mji = place expression

So the overall structure is:

[thing] + [possessive] + [is located] + [place]

That pattern is very useful in Swahili for describing location.