Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A national study shows the visual arts and music are the most popular art subjects among primary and intermediate children.

The Curriculum Insights and Progress study tested and surveyed more than 4500 children in Years 3, 6, and 8 and their teachers last year.

It asked students if they liked learning about each of the arts and found that most students did.

"Most students tended to agree, at least a little, that they liked learning in each area of the arts. However, the proportion of positive responses fell notably across successive year levels," the report said.

"Across all three year levels, positive responses were highest for visual art and music. Positive responses were lower for dance, ngā toi Māori, and drama, with drama recording the lowest level of agreement."

Just eight percent disagreed that they liked learning about visual art and 12 percent disagreed for music.

A third disagreed that they liked drama, and slightly fewer (29 and 28 percent) said the same for dance and ngā toi Māori.

The study found schools were better prepared to teach visual arts than the other arts disciplines, especially dance.

Most schools (about 70 percent) said they ran a school production, most had a choir and most schools with Year 8 students had bands.

However, kapa haka was the most widely-available art, offered by all schools with Year 8 students and 96 percent of other primary schools.

Students were also asked how often they participated in various art activities.

"The two activities students across all three year groups most often reported doing 'very often' were 'Māori performing arts groups like kapa haka' and 'Dance or move to music'. Another commonly reported activity for all three year groups was 'Use art materials like paint, harakeke/ flax and clay'," the report said.

The Curriculum Insights program also assessed Technology last year.

It found children's technology achievement was about the same as when it was last tested in 2021.

The report said Year 3 students expressed greater enjoyment than older students in all aspects of technology.

"Across all year levels, students expressed more enjoyment about practical tasks than theoretical ones," it said.

"Overall, students were most positive about hands-on, practical aspects of technology, particularly testing and improving designs, while interest was lower in areas such as coding and learning about the history of inventions."

Most students reported using tools and equipment to make things, and using different materials.

Most students agreed they could choose the right materials for a job, test something they made to make sure it worked well, and design something on a computer.