By Ebrima Mbaye
CLAIM: “…starting from August 2024, the Ministry of Education will offer nearly 2,000 free online courses. Everyone can receive a certificate after three weeks of formal education.”
SOURCE: Facebook User, Nora-czr24
VERDICT: FALSE
On August 8, 2024, Facebook user (Nora-czr24) shared a post with two seals of the Gambia Government (the Coat of Arms) “starting from August 2024, the Ministry of Education will offer nearly 2,000 free online courses. Everyone can receive a certificate after three weeks of formal education.”
FINDINGS
Nora-czr24’s post has ninety-five likes, fifteen comments and was shared at least once.
The post, bearing the emblem of the Government of The Gambia only mentions the Ministry of Education, and did not specify which of the country’s two ministries of education.
The Gambia has two ministries of education: the “Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE)” and the “Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (MoHERST)”.
None of the ministries of education have made such calls for application or made announcements of 2000 free online courses recently.
The Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education has since issued a Scam Alert on their Facebook page indicating that Gambian facebook users should disregard the aforementioned fake advertisement by Nora-czr24.
VERDICT
Based on our research and evidence gathered, the post by Nora-czr24 claiming that Gambi’a “ministry of education” is providing 2000 free online courses is FAKE and a SCAM purposely targeted at Gambian Facebook users.
