Parents and teachers say the Queensland Government's policy on air-conditioning in state schools is unfair, disadvantaging some students based on their postcode, or socio-economic background.

Key points: The State Government provides funding for air-conditioning in schools in the hottest parts of Queensland

The State Government provides funding for air-conditioning in schools in the hottest parts of Queensland State schools south of Gladstone are outside the funding zone

State schools south of Gladstone are outside the funding zone Some air-conditioning systems are provided for schools in the south west

The State Government provides funding to fully air-condition public schools in the north and west of Queensland, but schools south of Gladstone must find alternative funding if they wish to install climate control.

Queensland Teachers Union president Kevin Bates said schools at Ipswich, which are outside the funding zone, can experience extreme temperatures.

"We had temperatures inside classrooms of Ipswich for example, that were in excess of 40 degrees [Celsius], 43 degrees inside the classroom," he said.

"That means that no new learning can occur."

Mr Bates said school communities in wealthier areas were in a better position to fundraise to pay for air-conditioning themselves.

"There's no doubt that this is another example where the socioeconomic status of an individual community provides opportunities for the schools that everybody should have but some miss out on," Mr Bates said.

The Education Department does not collect data on how many schools are fully or partly air-conditioned.

Rochelle Caloon, whose son Dodge is about to start Year Five at Silkstone State School in Ipswich, said her son struggled to concentrate in un-airconditioned classrooms in summer.

"Our kids need an education and our government actually has a duty of care for our teachers and students and they're not providing that at the moment," Ms Caloon said.

Bundaberg West State School parent Meg Symes said her children's school is just south of the cut-off point for government funding.

Meg Symes says it's not fair her children's school has no air-conditioning as it falls just outside the government's funding zone. ( ABC News: Melinda Howells )

"It is ridiculous that we could travel half an hour up the road and their classrooms are fully air-conditioned and yet we have the exact same weather here and we are responsible for putting our own air-conditioning in, and it's not fair," Ms Symes said.

"Our students are suffering, and their results will suffer because of that."

Associate Professor in Child Development and Learning at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Dr Michael Nagel, said research has shown that high temperatures impede learning.

"Heat is the worst thing for the brain," he said.

"It can fog our thinking, it can impact upon our ability to do cognition or higher order thinking and it can change our behaviour.

"When the ambient temperature of a room hits about 28 degrees we know reading comprehension diminishes.

"We also know when it hits 25 degrees that mathematical skills tend to decline."

Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington has promised to air-condition all state schools by 2028, if elected.

"We're calling on the Palaszczuk Government to back our plan," Ms Frecklington said.

But Education Minister Grace Grace stopped short of committing to a full roll-out.

"We're working every single day with school communities to do what we can to air-condition as many classrooms as possible," she said.

"We've got programs in place that can expedite that and I'm looking forward to the day when they're all air-conditioned.

"It is a lot of money involved in this, we're talking over $2 billion to do this program and then you can't get it done overnight, you're probably looking at least a five-to-10-year program to do that."