Indoor Environmental Quality, Pupils’ Health, and Academic Performance—A Literature Review

Abstract

Classrooms have more students per square meter than other buildings such as offices, making them more crowded. In addition, children respire more than adults and are in contact with one another more often. For appropriate student comfort, wellbeing, and health, including reducing the risk of transferring communicable diseases (for example, COVID-19) in the school setting, adequate ventilation and thermal comfort is recommended, along with regular cleaning, especially of high-contact surfaces. However, this may lead to increased energy usage, especially in mechanically ventilated schools. While natural ventilation conserves energy, its usage may be limited in temperate regions, especially during the cold seasons, as more energy will be required for heating in order to achieve thermal comfort. In the tropics, natural ventilation alone may be insufficient for students’ thermal comfort due to the possibility of unconditioned warm or cold outdoor air entering the classroom environment. Additionally, natural ventilation is difficult to control, as there may be overventilation or underventilation due to the ventilation rate being dependent on the outdoor environmental condition such as windspeed. This current traditional literature review appraises previous indoor environmental quality (IEQ) literature on ventilation, thermal comfort, moisture and mold, and cleanliness in schools. Furthermore, a further review was performed on the effect of IEQ (indoor air quality and thermal comfort) on student health and academic outcomes in order to summarize existing knowledge that can help other researchers avoid research duplication and identify research gaps for future school IEQ studies.