Taxpayers funded cheat head’s Nepal trip
A CHEATING head teacher enjoyed a two-year trip to Nepal partly funded by the foreign aid budget, while under investigation in Britain.
Ludiya Besisira fooled Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) into making her an all-expenses-paid ‘education ambassador’. She had quit her primary school in London after ‘dishonestly’ doubling her salary to £97,000, a probe heard.
She was also said to have wrongly claimed £300an-hour overtime, to have bullied staff, employed an illegal worker and to have made unauthorised payments. But a year later she was flown by VSO, which is partly paid for by the Department for International Development, to the tourist spot of Kaski in the Himalayas, posting photos of herself online enjoying the sights while pupils missed out in the financial mess she had left behind.
Officials at VSO had offered her the overseas role without discovering Basisira was being investi- gated over her reign at Mission Grove Community Primary School in Walthamstow.
She appeared in VSO publicity to promote volunteering abroad, saying her stint had been a ‘memorable experience’ but her profile on the charity’s website was deleted after Besisira, 64, was banned from teaching for life last month.
Alan Meyrick, on behalf of Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, said a teacher misconduct hearing found a pattern of dishonesty over ‘large sums of money for her own personal gain’, with rises signed off by a governors’ chairman who ‘did her bidding’. She denied all the allegations.
Jaki Walker, VSO’s head of resourcing, said its recruitment process was now more rigorous.
Chris McGovern, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said: ‘VSO does some great work in developing countries but clearly needs to tighten up its vetting procedures.’