Former Health Minister and psychiatrist Joe Cassar has stressed the importance of children keeping to their normal timetable, even though schools are closed.

Cassar, speaking with The Malta Independent, spoke about the effects that staying home might have on children and their schooling, and said that children should still keep to their timetable in terms of school hours. This way the children can be in the same mindset that they will be at school. “I’ve had children who I’ve told: ‘if you normally wake up at 7am, wake up at 8am, however from 8.30am till at least 12.30pm you’re at school.’”

“There are some children I’ve even told to wear their uniform, so that their minds will think that they are at school.”

“Sleep at your usual time. If you normally sleep at 9pm, sleep at that time, not at 2am simply because you don’t think you have to go to school the next day. The next day you do have school.”

“If you do not create such a timetable the children will get confused. If you sleep at 2am each day and wake up at midday, after a time, you will change the biorhythm of your body and confuse your system.”

Told that such situations - keeping the children to their timetable - might not be possible at all times as for example both parents might be working, he said that they should do it as far as is possible. He agreed that the e-learning system has helped the children achieve more of a routine.

The former minister said if children are given schoolwork to do over an e-learning system, they should do it during school hours, and not stay playing in the morning then work on it at 5pm.

He spoke of people with learning disabilities. He said that he listened to a webinar by the Royal College of Psychiatrists on children with autism and learning disabilities and said that when their timetable is changed it confuses them. He said that people who have children with autism are facing major problems. “We need to keep these people in mind, and we need to understand that there are people who are struggling a lot.”

He said that hopefully, since the curve is slowly going down, and when some restrictions begin to be relaxed, these people who are struggling the most will be kept in mind. He mentioned children who attend schools such as the one in Wardija, that caters for special needs students, and said that since the schools are closed these children would be stuck in a room at home.