Teacher who skipped class for 20 years finally sacked and 'found on the beach'

27 June 2023, 12:44 | Updated: 27 June 2023, 13:22

A teacher who avoided work for 20 years has finally been fired.

Cinzia Paolina De Lio, a teacher at a school in Chioggia, near Venice, showed up for four years out of 24 in the job.

When she was at work, she ignored her students, sent text messages, made up lessons as she went and had to borrow textbooks from pupils because she had forgotten her own.

Ms De Lio, a philosophy and literature teacher at Veronese high school, used sick leave and holiday time to get out of lessons, and went to conferences to avoid more work.

But she wasn't twiddling her thumbs during her time away from the classroom: she managed to get qualifications in pet therapy and criminology, Italian media reported.

Her pupils went on strike after she was caught messaging during oral exams and handed out grades that didn't correspond to children's actual performance.

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In one of her rare appearances at school, a visiting inspector raised the alarm after spotting that she looked confused and was making up her lessons as she went along.

Ms De Lio was sacked by her school but was reinstated on appeal. But a judge reversed the decision after learning that she had only been at the school for four years out of twenty.

The sacking had to be rubber-stamped by Italy's supreme court.

When contacted by reporters for comment, Ms De Lio could not speak because she was at the beach.

She said: "I will reconstruct the truth of the facts of this absolutely unique and surreal story", adding that she wants to "personally manage the media aspect of the story".

Ms De Lio is not the only Italian worker to go missing from her job in recent years.

A member of staff at a hospital in the southern city of Catanzaro was accused in 2021 of stopping showing up to work in 2005.

Local media reported that he was paid about £464,000 in total over the 16 years he was accused of not working.