Special Allocations

A Special Allocation is a custom cross-division student group where selected students from one or more classes study a particular subject under a single teacher — outside the regular class timetable. This is used for elective subjects, add-on courses, bridge courses, optional papers, or any subject that doesn't fit neatly into the standard class-teacher-subject structure.

Step 1 — Creating a Special Allocation (HOD Allocations Module)

Special Allocations are created from the Allocations page, which also handles regular teacher-class-subject allocations. A dedicated "Special Allocation" section appears below the standard allocation table.

• Five Required Fields:
  • Allocation Name — A label for the group (e.g., "Tally Advanced — Elective" or "Bridge Course Group A")
  • Teacher — The teacher who will teach this subject to this group
  • Subject Name — The subject name as it will appear on timetables, attendance, and marks
  • Academic Year — Links the group to the correct academic year
  • Students — At least one student must be selected (system enforces this)
• Three Optional Fields:
  • Subject Code — Optional subject code for report printing
  • Semester — Ties the group to a specific semester if needed
  • Description — Internal notes about this group
• Source Classes (Multi-Select):
  The HOD selects which classes are "involved" in this group. This is used for display/filtering purposes only — the actual student membership is determined by the individual student selection, not the class selection. A student from FY-A and one from FY-B can both be in the same SA.
• Dynamic Student Picker:
  Once source classes are selected, the student picker loads all active students from those classes in real time via AJAX. The HOD then hand-picks exactly which students belong to this group — no need to take the entire class.
• What gets saved (4 database tables):
  • special_allocations — The main record with name, teacher, subject, year
  • special_allocation_classes — Which classes are "involved" (for display/filtering)
  • special_allocation_students — Exactly which individual students are in the group, with their class IDs
  Security: The HOD ID (hod_id from the teachers table) is stored on every SA record. An HOD cannot view or edit another department's special allocations.
• Edit & Delete:
  Existing SAs appear in a table. The Edit button triggers a modal pre-filled with all current data (via the api/get-special-allocation-details.php AJAX endpoint). Editing replaces the student and class lists entirely — it deletes old records and inserts the new ones in a single database transaction, ensuring no partial states.

Step 2 — Special Allocation Timetable Builder (HOD Attendance Module)

Once created, the SA group needs a weekly schedule. This dedicated timetable builder is separate from the regular class timetable. It lets the HOD pick specific day-and-slot combinations for the SA's lectures.

• SA Selector Dropdown:
  All active SAs for the HOD's department are listed. Selecting one loads its timetable grid. The dropdown also shows student count for each SA so the HOD can identify groups at a glance.
• SA Info Banner:
  Once an SA is selected, a dark navy info banner appears showing: allocation name, subject, subject code, teacher name, student count, and which classes are involved.
• Smart Slot Loading (Two-Tier):
  The time slot grid is built intelligently:
  • First: The system checks if any of the SA's source classes has class-specific time slots defined. If yes, those class slots are used (marked "Class-specific slots" badge).
  • Fallback: If no class-specific slots exist, the HOD's general department time slots are used.
• Weekly Grid (Days × Slots):
  A 6×N grid (Monday to Saturday × all configured time slots) is displayed. Each cell shows:
  • Available slot (white): A checkbox + subject label. Tick to schedule this SA in this slot.
  • Scheduled slot (green): Already saved slots show with a green left border and the checkbox checked.
  • Break slot (amber): Configured break periods show a coffee cup icon and cannot be scheduled.
  • Conflict slot (red, disabled): Slots where the SA's assigned teacher is already booked in another class's regular timetable are shown in red with a "Busy" label and the conflicting class name. The checkbox is disabled — the HOD cannot double-book the teacher.
• Room Field:
  When a slot is checked, a small "Room (opt.)" text field appears below the checkbox. The HOD can optionally note which room the group will use. This room info is saved and shown to students on their timetable view.
• Save Schedule:
  Clicking "Save Schedule" submits the form. The system deletes all existing schedule entries for this SA in this academic year and inserts the newly checked slots — a clean replace operation. The count of saved slots is shown in the success message.
• Clear Button:
  A "Clear" button unchecks all slots in the grid without saving — useful for starting over before a new semester.
  Student View: Once the SA timetable is saved, students in the group see these additional slots on their personal timetable page (Student Dashboard), alongside their regular class schedule — fully integrated.
• Legend (Bottom of Page): Four colour boxes explain the grid: Scheduled Slot (green), Break (amber), Teacher Busy (red), Available (grey).

Step 3 — Marking Attendance for Special Allocation Students (Teacher Attendance Module)

The teacher assigned to a Special Allocation marks attendance for SA students through the same attendance page they use for regular classes — but the SA session appears as a separate option in the lecture dropdown, labelled [SPECIAL].

• SA Slots in the Lecture Dropdown:
  When the teacher opens the attendance page on a given day, the lecture dropdown shows all their regular timetable slots plus any Special Allocation timetable slots scheduled for that day. SA slots appear as:
  09:00 AM — [Subject Name] [SPECIAL] ([Allocation Name])
  This clearly distinguishes SA lectures from regular class lectures.
• SA-specific Student List:
  When an SA lecture is selected, the student list shows only the students enrolled in that specific SA — not the full class. If a student from FY-A and a student from FY-B are both in "Tally Advanced Group 1," only those two students appear in the attendance form.
• Three Status Buttons per Student:
  Same as regular attendance: P (Present — green), A (Absent — red), and leave auto-detection. Students on HOD-approved leave are automatically shown as "On Leave" with a green badge — the teacher doesn't need to manually mark them.
• Session Storage (SA vs Regular):
  SA attendance sessions are stored in attendance_sessions with special_allocation_id filled and class_id set to NULL. Regular sessions use class_id and leave special_allocation_id NULL. This means SA attendance is always separate from regular class attendance — a student's SA attendance percentage doesn't get mixed into their main class attendance.
• Lock & Unlock:
  Attendance is locked after submission (same as regular attendance). If the HOD has configured a "past days allowed" edit window (e.g., 2 days), the teacher can re-open and correct SA attendance within that window without needing HOD to manually unlock.
  Data Integrity: SA attendance conflicts are physically impossible — the session lookup matches on special_allocation_id + slot_id + date as a unique combination. Two teachers cannot accidentally create duplicate sessions for the same SA slot on the same day.
• Attendance Reports:
  SA sessions appear in the HOD's attendance reports alongside regular class sessions. The HOD can filter by SA-linked teacher to see the special allocation's lecture count and student-wise attendance percentages.

Step 4 — Internal Marks for Special Allocation Students (Teacher Marks Module)

After an SA group completes an examination or internal assessment, the teacher enters marks separately for the SA students.

• SA-only Marks Entry:
  The teacher selects the special allocation from a dropdown. The student list loads only SA-enrolled students — not the entire class. This ensures marks for an elective subject don't accidentally appear in a student's regular class marks sheet.
• Same Mark Entry UI:
  The form uses the same multi-exam, max-marks-configurable interface as regular internal marks — with Present/Absent toggles and out-of-max-marks validation.
• HOD Visibility:
  HOD can view SA marks in the class reports section, filtered by the special allocation, to see the distribution of marks for the elective group.
  Student Marksheet: SA marks appear on the student's own marks view page (Student Marks Module) as a separate section labelled with the SA subject — clearly separated from their core subjects.

Step 5 — Feedback for Special Allocation Teachers (HOD Feedback Module)

The Feedback module supports Special Allocations natively. When the HOD allocates a feedback form to a teacher, the allocation modal shows a "Special Allocation" dropdown that lists all active SAs for the department.

• SA-specific Feedback Allocation:
  The HOD selects the feedback form → selects the SA teacher → selects the SA from the dropdown. The feedback is then sent only to students enrolled in that SA — not to the entire class.
• Anonymous Student Responses:
  When students fill the feedback form via their portal, they rate only the SA teacher for the SA subject. Their identity is not shown to the teacher — only the HOD can see individual responses.
• Safe Delete Guard:
  If even one student has already submitted feedback for the SA allocation, the HOD cannot delete that feedback allocation — the system blocks the delete and shows an error. This protects the integrity of submitted responses.
  Institutional Value: Elective and add-on course teachers are often evaluated less rigorously than core subject teachers. SA-specific feedback closes this gap — the HOD gets separate analytics for every special group teacher, supporting fair performance evaluation across all teaching activities.

How Special Allocations Appear Across the System

Key Rules & Guardrails

Common Use Cases

• Elective Subjects: Students from all three divisions (A, B, C) who chose "Entrepreneurship" as an elective are grouped together under one teacher.
• Bridge / Remedial Courses: Weak students from multiple classes are grouped for extra tutoring in a specific subject.
• Add-On Certificates: Students doing a certificate course (e.g., Tally, Python, GST) from any class are tracked as a single SA group for attendance and marks.
• Language Papers: Optional language subjects (e.g., French, German) where students opt-in from across divisions.
• Practical Batches Across Classes: When practical sessions combine students from different divisions into a single group per semester.