ABSTRACT
Humans spend 90 percent of their time indoors, thus, the quality of the built or indoor environment impacts their health as well as productivity. The main aim of an educational building is to satisfy the learning requirements of students and educators by the means of design, architecture and comfort. The Indoor Environment Quality of a space comprises of four comfort parameters which are Thermal Comfort, Acoustic Comfort, Visual Comfort and Indoor Air Quality. In this study, the Indoor Environment Quality of fifty municipal schools was assessed by monitoring Indoor Air Temperature, Relative Humidity, Illuminance, Noise and concentration of pollutants like Formaldehyde, TVOC, CO2, PM2.5 and PM10, twice, once in the month of February (winter – phase 1) and March (spring – phase 2). The monitored results were compared with the relevant standards. It was found that the relative humidity was lower than the standards, noise level higher than the limits and the amount of light within the classrooms was inadequate. The concentration of air pollutants like formaldehyde and TVOC increased during phase 2, while PM2.5 and PM10 decreased in phase 2. The overall air quality improved in phase 2 of monitoring, which was attributed to better ventilation.
