29 June 2023 , 09:50
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A teacher sacked in Italy for 20 years of absence during 24 years employed at schools near Venice was "unprepared and "inattentive" the few times she did show up, a report found.
Cinzia Paolina De Lio is said to have used her holiday, time permitted to go to conferences, sick leave and personal and family reasons to avoid going to work.
The secondary school teacher was eventually sacked in 2017 after reappearing for four months in 2015, leading to complaints from parents.
According to pupils at this particular school, Ms De Lio, who specialised in philosophy and literature, showed little interest in actually teaching them during her stint.
An inspection reported found some pupils refused to take part in her lessons because she was too distracted by her phone.
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Some pupils refused to turn up to lessons taught by Ms De Lio (Getty Images/iStockphoto)The report also said Ms De Lio was "unprepared" and "inattentive" and her lessons were confusing.
Students have also claimed she would sit texting during their exams and when teaching would not have the textbooks needed.
She would often ask to borrow one from them, they said.
The pupils also claimed that she would hand out grades at random rather than marking properly.
After the damning inspection report Ms De Lio was fired in 2017, but was reinstated in 2018 when she took the case to court.
However, after the court learnt she had technically only worked four years out of 24 the decision to reinstate her was reversed and backed by the Supreme Court.
Her defence of "freedom of teaching" was rejected by the court which argued it was the teacher's responsibility to guarantee students' right to study.
The Italian Supreme court ruled that Ms De Lio "permanently and absolutely unsuitable" for the job.
Ms De Lio, who now describes herself as a freelance journalist, condemned the ruling and vowed to "reconstruct the truth".
She said she had documents to prove her story but told Repubblica newspaper: "Sorry, but right now I'm at the beach."
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"I will reconstruct the truth of the facts of this absolutely unique and surreal story," she said. "I don't answer questions from journalists thrown around that wouldn't do justice to the truth of my story."
Italy's education ministry said it would "increasingly strive to ensure that the activity of teaching is carried out with adequate professionalism".