Design of an Automated Timetable Scheduling System for Senior Secondary Schools in Kaduna State

Manual timetable preparation in Nigerian secondary schools is a time-intensive process prone to scheduling conflicts, unequal teacher workload distribution, and errors that disrupt academic activities at the start of each term. This study presents the design of an automated timetable scheduling system for senior secondary schools in Kaduna State, North West Nigeria. The research adopted a structured systems development approach, beginning with a review of timetable scheduling challenges in five government secondary schools in Kaduna metropolis, where teachers reported spending an average of 12 working hours on manual timetable compilation per term. The proposed system applies a constraint-satisfaction algorithm to generate conflict-free timetables accounting for subject-teacher assignments, classroom capacities, and maximum daily teaching hours per instructor. Developed using Java with a Swing graphical user interface, the system allows school administrators to input parameters and generate a complete term timetable within three minutes. Validation testing using actual school data from two institutions confirmed that the generated timetables satisfied all input constraints with no conflicts. The study recommends adoption by the Kaduna State Secondary Education Board to reduce administrative burden and improve timetable equity across schools. Keywords: automated scheduling, timetable generation, secondary school management, Kaduna State, constraint-satisfaction algorithm.