Indoor air quality measurements in South African primary school classrooms of various building infrastructure types

In the resource-constrained South African education sector, infrastructure which is considered as temporary or backup in other countries is used as permanent classrooms, primarily but not exclusively in lower-income areas. Children’s cognitive performance and comfort are directly impacted by indoor air quality. Temperature, relative humidity, particulate matter and CO2 levels, substantial determinants of air quality, have not been studied across different classroom types. We measure these parameters every 11 minutes in various classrooms at schools in Stellenbosch, South Africa. These classrooms consist of a range of different infrastructure types. Container classrooms with and without insulation, mobile (prefabricated) classrooms, and brick classrooms of different configurations are included. Measurements are concurrently sampled over ten months (249 days, still ongoing), across multiple seasons with relevant metadata including ambient weather conditions, school days and times, and in the (South) African context, electrical availability, which impacts air conditioning usage. Measured classroom dimensions, building materials and air conditioning methods are included. This dataset provides valuable insights into true learning conditions in South African school classrooms.

在资源受限的南非教育领域，在其他国家被视为临时或备用设施的建筑物，在此被用作永久性教室，主要但不仅限于低收入地区。儿童的认知表现与舒适度直接受到室内空气质量的影响。温度、相对湿度、颗粒物和二氧化碳浓度，这些空气质量的关键决定因素，在不同类型的教室中尚未得到研究。我们以每11分钟为间隔，对南非 Stellenbosch 地区的多所学校的不同类型教室进行测量。这些教室包括多种基础设施类型，如带有和不带保温层的集装箱教室、移动（预制）教室以及不同配置的砖混教室。测量数据在十个月（249天，仍在进行中）内同时收集，覆盖多个季节，并包含相关元数据，例如环境气象条件、学校工作日及时间，以及在南非的特定环境下，电力供应情况，这会影响空调的使用。测量数据还包括教室尺寸、建筑材料和空调方式。该数据集为南非学校教室的真实学习条件提供了宝贵的洞见。