Virtual Booth

Adaptive School Timetabling and Teacher Relief Management: Supporting Flexible Schedules and Inclusive Learning

School timetabling requires administrators to coordinate teaching allocations, staggered recess periods, special duties and unexpected teacher absences. These demands become more complex when schools introduce activities of different durations or organise shared remedial sessions across classes. This project presents a Windows-based application designed to support these interconnected scheduling needs within a practical school workflow.

The program combines two linked modules: weekly timetable generation and daily teacher relief management. Users register teachers, subjects and classes, allocate teaching periods, and configure scheduling constraints. Features include multiple recess groups, adjustable recess durations, teacher duty blocking, subject-specific time restrictions and an optional 15-minute character-building session after recess for Year 1 classes. Timetables can be adjusted through drag-and-drop interactions, while lesson locking preserves approved placements during regeneration. Unscheduled lessons remain visibly flagged for user attention.

A distinctive feature synchronises lessons across separate classes so that a remedial teacher can teach selected pupils together while the remaining pupils continue with their respective classroom teachers. The remedial session is recorded as a single teaching commitment. The relief module supports full-day and partial-day absences, automatic or manual assignments, and selection using teachers’ personal schedules and remaining free periods. Actual lesson intervals are checked to identify overlapping commitments.

Software logic tests have covered scheduling constraints, linked sessions, locking, relief assignments and file handling. Validation on operational Windows installations and school-based evaluation remain necessary; reductions in workload and improvements in lesson coverage have not yet been measured.

The project demonstrates a practical approach to connecting long-term timetable planning with daily staffing decisions, with potential to support administrative efficiency, continuity of teaching and coordinated remedial provision.

Keywords: school timetabling; teacher relief; constraint-based scheduling; remedial education; school administration.