An impostor Facebook (FB) page posted an announcement supposedly from the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) saying that the difficulty level of the next Licensure Examination for Professional Teachers (LEPT) will be reduced. This is fabricated.
Published on June 3, the still-circulating post was uploaded by a page pretending to be affiliated with the national government’s licensing and regulatory agency for the practice of regulated professions. A part of the caption read:
“We want to inform you about an important update regarding the upcoming September 2023 LET exam. Taking into consideration the feedback and ratings from the previous exam, we have made adjustments to ensure a more favorable experience for everyone. In response to the low ratings received, we have decided to make the next exam easier in comparison.”
It further claims that this is the PRC’s way to address examinees’ concerns “without compromising” the exam’s standards and the evaluation process’ integrity. The post also bore a link that leads netizens to an e-commerce site.
The accompanying graphic featured the PRC’s logo and text with a similar claim, the only adjustment being that it referred to the 2024 exam instead of this year’s.
This announcement is fake. The PRC did not issue such an announcement and the FB page PRC Updates is not affiliated with them.
In a June 24 advisory, the PRC listed the official social media accounts of their main and regional offices and disowned other social media pages’ unauthorized use of their logo and name.
“All other social media pages in any platform that bears the PRC logo or the Agency name/seal otherwise not included in the above are not legitimate representation of the agency. PRC is NOT in any way connected to these unofficial social media pages,” PRC said.
The commission also posts updates on its official website.
To further deceive netizens, the impostor FB page’s display picture featured a slightly altered version of the PRC’s logo. The commission’s name and the torch icon were removed.
Several netizens fell for the wrong information, with some voicing approval of the changes and others calling it “unfair.”
The fake announcement started circulating more than two weeks after the PRC released the results for the March 2023 LEPT. The percentage of exam passers for the elementary and secondary levels were 40.76% and 46.94% respectively. These were slightly lower than the previous exam in October 2022, with passing rates of 54.43% for elementary and 50.94% for secondary education.
FB page PRC Updates (created on May 6) posted the fake graphic garnering 2,000 reactions, 962 comments and 4,700 shares.
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(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)