Four state primary schools shall open in the evenings for their playgrounds to be used by autistic children.

The announcement was made this afternoon by Education Minister Evarist Bartolo and Ms Michelle Muscat, the Prime Minister’s wife, at the St Paul’s Bay Primary School.

The initiative follows a series of meetings Ms Muscat has had with members of the Autism Parents Association, who highlighted the difficulties they had to face as they could not take their children to play in a safe environment.

Autistic children had the tendency to wander off and get over-stimulated if there was a lot of noise.

The association proposed the use of primary schools after hours and four primary schools - those of St Paul’s Bay, Attard, Marsaxlokk and Sannat are to start being used for the purpose on a number of days during the week.