In Slovenian schools, timetables are manually planned, resulting in many errors and conflicts. Slovenian primary schools follow a complex curriculum. Daily activities are divided by time slots. Each...

In Slovenian schools, timetables are manually planned, resulting in many errors and conflicts. Slovenian primary schools follow a complex curriculum. Daily activities are divided by time slots. Each grade is allotted a different number of time slots based on the respective number of mandatory subjects for that grade. In addition, a student achieving higher grades can use one time slot per week for additional lessons in a chosen subject. Similarly, a student facing difficulty in a subject can use one time slot per week for additional group lessons in that subject. In addition, some subjects can use fractional time slots. As a result, the timetables of other grades in which a fractional time slot subject is scheduled gets disrupted. Methodology A system named iUrnik was developed. The system allows students to enroll in their preferred subjects but takes administrative and faculty constraints into account. iUrnik consists of five modules: • Input and Data Management Data can be imported or manually entered into iUrnik. This data includes preferred subjects, classroom capacities, priorities for specific subjects, days, and time slots. • Management of Elective Subjects and Groups Data about students’ choices of elective subjects are entered into the database. The algorithm attempts to assign students to groups based on their preferred subjects while minimizing the number of subjects not assigned to any group. • Timetable Scheduling In this module, planners can generate timetables using a graphical user interface and make manual adjustments. • Substitutions This module is used to make substitution or changes in the timetable. For example, if a teacher is absent on a certain day, this module can search for the most suitable available teacher substitution based on their familiarity with the classes. • Reports This module can publish timetabling results such as the objective function and idle time slots for students and teachers. Student timetables are printed and handed out to students because of privacy legislation in Slovenia. Results iUrnik significantly reduced the number of errors as well as the number of idle time slots for students and teachers. iUrnik now provides quality timetables for students and teachers in three Slovenian primary schools.

Questions for Discussion

 1. What were the challenges faced by Slovenian primary schools in creating timetables?

 2. Explain the functions of the different modules of iUrnik.

3. How did iUrnik solve the problem of scheduling timetables?

 4. Explain the benefits of using iUrnik.