Oprah Winfrey explains why she is closing her school in South Africa 

by Dollita Okine, Face2FaceAfrica.com

Oprah Winfrey has announced that the South African school she founded almost 20 years ago will close and return management to local authorities while she concentrates on an “expanded” scholarship program for girls there.

“The dream was never simply to build a school. It was to invest in the limitless potential of young women,” Winfrey, 72, said in a statement on July 29, announcing that the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy of Girls will end operations in its current form at the end of 2027, according to People.

A representative for Winfrey told the outlet that the provincial government will then take over and keep running the building as a school. 

The rep stated that the academy is scheduled to graduate two additional classes of girls, while the remaining students “will go to other top-tier schools with their tuition paid for in total by Ms. Winfrey through their graduation.”

In her statement, Winfrey stated that her mission “does not end with one campus. It continues in every girl whose future can be changed through education.”

“I’m excited that this next chapter will allow us to reach even more young women across South Africa and continue the promise that began more than 20 years ago,” she continued.

According to Winfrey’s representative, the scholarship program will begin after the academy’s students graduate. “Overall, there will be double the amount of girls who will have access to education through this model.”

“That is the core of the decision to shift to this new model after seeing the success of the students the past 20 years,” the rep said.

Since it opened in 2007, Winfrey’s Academy has graduated over 1,000 girls.

Following what Winfrey called a “devastating” early controversy with a former staff member accused and later acquitted of abuse, the school went on to educate young women “from disadvantaged communities across South Africa,” according to a news release shared by the academy.

A study referenced in the press release noted that nearly all of the graduates surveyed said they continued their education and “reported that their education positively transformed their families.”

In 2019, Winfrey told People, “This school is my greatest legacy. These girls are my deepest, greatest joy.”

The idea for the girls’ school began in December 2000 when Winfrey and Nelson Mandela talked about establishing an educational path for girls in South Africa, according to Newsday. On December 6, 2002, Winfrey, Mandela, and Kader Asmal, the Education Minister at the time, began construction on the future location of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls.

The Academy began as a public-private partnership with the Gauteng Department of Education before becoming an independent school on August 20, 2006. The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation has contributed $400 million to the academy’s creation through personal donations from Winfrey.

The Academy’s doors opened in January 2007. Five years later, on January 14, 2012, the Academy hosted its first graduating class of 72 students.

Meanwhile, the Gauteng MEC for Education, Lebogang Maile, has welcomed Winfrey’s announcement regarding the next chapter of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, IOL reported.

Maile described the transition as the evolution of one of South Africa’s most remarkable educational collaborations.

“For nearly two decades, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls has stood as a powerful testament to what can be achieved when society deliberately invests in the education and leadership development of young women. We express our profound gratitude to Ms Oprah Winfrey for her extraordinary vision, generosity and unwavering commitment to the education of South Africa’s young women.”

He added, “Through this Academy, she has not merely built a school, she has nurtured leaders, expanded opportunities, restored hope and transformed lives.”

According to Maile, the investment would have long-lasting effects that would extend across the nation and into future generations.

He remarked, “The legacy of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls reminds us that the advancement of women is fundamental to the advancement of society itself.”