A religious education teacher in Italy is facing investigation after she allegedly told students that homosexuality is a “curable illness”.

The teacher at Itis Pininfarina school in the northern city of Turin told a class of 16-year-old students that so-called “gay cures” were “scientifically proven", the Gay Star News reported according to Italian newspaper Il Secolo XIX.

She reportedly cited the case of a man who had been “converted” from homosexuality to persuade the children to believe the theory. She said that the man was gay because he suffered childhood trauma, but underwent months of therapy which enabled him to give up the “gay lifestyle” and raise a family with a woman.

But students were unconvinced, and reported the teacher to the school’s head master.

Stefano Fava, the school's headmaster, has said he regards the incident as “serious”.He added will subsequently launch an internal investigation, and speak with the pupils and the teacher directly.