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Claim: “The Ministry of Education will offer free four-week online courses for people aged 16-65,” a viral post alleged.
Verdict: False. The Ministry of Education says the information is fake.
Full Text
Barely a few days before the government of Liberia could announce the launch of a scholarship grant for Liberians at the master’s degree level to study abroad, a post circulated on social media declared a free scholarship programme from the Ministry of Education (MOE).
The information posted by a Facebook page named Golden-flower stated that the ministry will offer free 4-week online courses for people aged 16 to 65 in 1,000 courses. It also said free laptops would be given, and outstanding students would be given scholarships and job recommendations.
Screenshot of the viral post
As of the time of this report, the post had attracted 5.7k reactions, 43 shares, and over 497 comments. Many commenters expressed their interest in the programme and appreciated the government for providing them with such opportunities.
DUBAWA verified the truthfulness of the viral announcement.
Verification
DUBAWA contacted the MOE, and their Director of Communications, Maxime Bleetahn, debunked the information.
Bleetahn said the information is fake and is not from the MOE.
“It’s fake. It’s fake. Anything that is not on our website or our Facebook page is fake,” he said.
DUBAWA observed that the post was a phishing strategy by bad actors to harvest vital data from unsuspecting Liberians.
Conclusion
A viral post claiming the Ministry of Education offers free online courses for four weeks is fake.
