The Ministry of Education Sports and Culture (M.E.S.C.) has warned the public of the existence of a fake social media page with the Ministry's name and a picture of its headquarters as its profile picture.

The M.E.S.C. issued a public notice on their official Facebook page on Tuesday afternoon alerting the public of the page.

"It has come to our attention that there is a fake page that has been created on Facebook under the name as you see in the picture below (Ministry of Education Sports and Culture Samoa Group)," the M.E.S.C. public notice reads.

"We would like to advise the public that we have not given any permission for this person or persons to create this page which may have been giving misleading information to the public.

"Please know that our Ministry will investigate this matter further and will seek legal advise regarding this issue."

The "Ministry of Education Sports and Culture" page is categorised by Facebook as a public group and has has over 1900 followers. The last update to the page was done on 15 February 2022.  

Despite the warning issued by the Ministry, people have been posting on the page's wall seeking updates on the commencement of the 2022 school year.

Information available on Facebook showed that the page was created on 10 September 2018 and has so far registered 52 posts in the last month and added 206 new members in the last week. 

Students across Samoa resumed classes on Monday after Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa announced the downgrading of the Government's COVID-19 Alert to Level 1 effective from 6pm last Friday. 

A public notice was also issued by the MESC to advise that schools open on 14 February and all parents are urged to ensure their children completed their COVID-19 vaccinations.

In a notice issued last week by the Ministry, all schools opened on the 14th of February, while all parents were urged to ensure children have completed all COVID-19 vaccinations.

The notice also advised school principals to ensure that everyone follows hygiene and safety precautions at all times as part of revised State of Emergency (S.O.E.) Orders issued for Alert Level 1.