The new school year is beginning with a new digital solution for ten secondary schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina: a licence to use software for creating and managing school timetables.
The tool enables schools to create complex timetables faster and more accurately while making better use of available resources. Instead of spending considerable time manually coordinating numerous requirements—from teachers’ schedules and classroom availability to lesson times—the software automates a large part of the process and helps schools find optimal solutions.
According to Mirela Čorbo-Okerić, Principal of the Secondary School for Environment and Wood Design Sarajevo, creating a school timetable has so far required a great deal of time, patience and repeated checking, with every change in one part of the timetable often triggering a series of further adjustments.
“The digital tool will allow us to make this process faster, more accurate and transparent, while enabling us to adapt more easily to the changes that inevitably occur during the school year. Creating a school timetable is never simply a technical matter of arranging lessons. It is a highly complex process that requires coordinating a large number of teachers, classes, subjects, classrooms, specialised facilities, practical training sessions and various organisational requirements.
We believe that digitalising this process will bring greater order, reduce the administrative burden and significantly facilitate the beginning of each new school year. I believe that obtaining a licence for a digital timetable represents an important step towards modernising our school and organising its daily operations more efficiently.”
In addition to saving time, digitalisation enables schools to manage timetable changes and teacher substitutions more easily, as well as to share timetables more efficiently. More effective planning contributes to the improved organisation of teachers’ and students’ work and to the more rational use of school resources, particularly in schools with complex teaching arrangements.
This makes the digital solution more than simply a timetable-planning tool. It can support the broader modernisation of school management by connecting different aspects of teaching organisation and enabling schools to adapt more easily to changes throughout the school year.
The provision of licences for timetable creation and management software is part of GIZ’s support under the Sustainable Economic Development and Employment Promotion programme in Bosnia and Herzegovina (SEDEP). This area of the programme is funded by the Government of Switzerland and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by GIZ.
“By introducing digital solutions in schools, GIZ—through co-financing from the Swiss Government and the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany—is supporting the modernisation of school management and the development of a more efficient education system. Digital tools do not merely bring technological change; they enable schools to manage their daily processes more easily, make better use of available resources and make higher-quality, data-driven decisions. In this way, digitalisation helps reduce the administrative burden and enables schools to become more efficient and flexible, while adapting more easily to the needs of students and teachers and to changes within the education system,” said Mia Kotlo, Human Capital Development Advisor at GIZ.
The licences were awarded to:
- Second Secondary School Cazin
- Secondary School for Environment and Wood Design Sarajevo
- Mixed Secondary School of Mechanical Engineering Tuzla
- Mixed Secondary School Gračanica
- “Safet Krupić” Mixed Secondary School Bosanska Krupa
- Mixed Secondary School of Mechanical Engineering and Transport Bihać
- Mixed Secondary School of Electrical Engineering Tuzla
- Mixed Secondary School Živinice
- First Secondary School Cazin
- Mixed Secondary School of Electrical Engineering and Wood Processing Bihać
Introducing digital solutions into schools’ daily management represents a tangible step towards a more efficient, modern and future-ready education system—one in which technology does not replace people but enables them to devote their time and energy to what matters most: the quality of education and working with students.
