How to make a school timetable for 2026 in Kenya
The timetable is the one document every teacher and learner uses every day — and in 2026 it got harder. Senior School has new pathways and electives, Grade 10 runs beside Form 3 and Form 4, and teachers are shared between levels. Here is what KICD’s guidelines say for Senior School and a practical way to build a timetable that works.
What KICD’s Senior School guidelines say
According to the timetabling guidelines reported in January 2026:
- 40 lessons a week, 8 lessons a day, each 40 minutes long.
- Learners report at 8:00 a.m.; 8:00 to 8:20 is for roll call, assembly and class meetings; lessons run from 8:20 a.m. to 3:20 p.m.
- A health break after every two lessons and a one-hour lunch break.
- Only one double lesson a week for Arts, Sports Science and STEM subjects, and subjects needing similar skills should not follow each other.
Lessons per week by subject
| Subject | Lessons per week |
|---|---|
| English | 5 |
| Kiswahili | 5 |
| Mathematics | 5 |
| Three electives (pathway subjects) | 5 each — 15 |
| Community Service Learning | 3 |
| Physical Education | 3 |
| ICT | 2 |
| Pastoral / Religious Instruction | 1 |
| Learner personal / guidance study | 1 |
| Total | 40 |
Step by step: building the timetable
- List every class and stream and the lessons each subject needs per week. Check the total for each stream is exactly the number of lesson slots you have.
- List every teacher’s load across all levels, including teachers shared between Junior School, Senior School and Form 3 and 4. A teacher with more lessons than there are periods in the week can never fit.
- Block the fixed times first: assembly, games, clubs, PPI and any time a teacher is not available.
- Place the hardest lessons first: doubles that need labs, and elective blocks where several streams take different subjects at the same time.
- Fill in the core subjects, spreading each across the week instead of stacking them on one day, with mathematics and languages early in the day where possible.
- Check for clashes: no teacher in two places at once, no class with two lessons at once, no lab booked twice.
- Print and share: a timetable for each class and each teacher, and a master timetable for the staffroom.
The three mistakes that ruin a timetable
1. Forgetting teachers shared between levels
If the Grade 10 timetable and the Form 3 and 4 timetable are made separately, a Chemistry teacher can end up booked in both at 10 o’clock. Whichever timetable is made second must treat every period the teacher already teaches as unavailable.
2. Elective blocks that don’t line up
When learners from different streams choose different electives, those electives must run at the same time, each with its own teacher and room. Plan these blocks before anything else.
3. Not checking the numbers first
If a stream needs 42 lessons and the week has 40 slots, no amount of shuffling will make it fit. Check every stream’s and every teacher’s totals before you start.
Junior School and the lower levels
Junior School, Primary and Pre-Primary have their own lesson allocations from KICD; use the latest circular for your level. The method above works the same way: totals first, fixed times next, hardest lessons before the easy ones, then check for clashes.
ShuleTop’s timetable generator checks the totals for you, blocks fixed times, handles doubles and elective blocks, and never books a teacher in two places — even across separate Junior and Senior School timetables. See the timetable generator →
Sources
Guidelines can change. Always check the latest KICD and Ministry of Education circulars for your level.