The museum complex is due to reopen late next year, after its $35 million redevelopment project is completed, but some parts of the museum are still being used for classes.
Museum educator Sara Sinclair estimates about 2500 school pupils will have taken part in Ministry of Education-funded education at the museum in the first six months of this year.
The comparable total last year was 2262.
The museum has made more use of outreach programmes this year, including at the Dunedin Gasworks Museum, and a series of "1848" dramatic presentations have been made to Dunedin schools by actor Danny Still and story-teller Kaitrin McMullan.
Maintaining pupil numbers, despite redevelopment-related disruption, was a "really positive outcome", and drama-related education was adding to the education programme's appeal, Ms Sinclair said.
An old hall upstairs in the museum's NZR bus station building has been refurbished and for the first time this month, school pupils have dressed in period costumes and experienced being in a 19th century classroom there.
The museum is also staging its first drama challenge this month, and pupils from Kavanagh College and Otago Girls' High School are creating a series of short plays, set in the museum's historic bus station foyer in 1943.
