After two decades, Oprah Winfrey ends school in South Africa

A american host Oprah Winfrey announced that she will close the school for disadvantaged girls she founded in South Africa two decades ago, maintaining other support.

“The dream was never simply to build a school,” Oprah Winfrey said in a statement released by the institution, Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, on Wednesday, stressed that the mission “continues on every girl whose future can be transformed through education.”.

The presenter and philanthropist explained that the goal “was to invest in the unlimited potential of young women”, and the “mission does not end with a single campus”.

Winfrey opened the academy in 2007, after having been inspired by talks with former South African President Nelson Mandela about the transforming power of girls' education.

The charity foundation of the North American host managed and financed the school, but it was always part of the agreement that the campus of the academy, near Johannesburg, South Africa, would, in the long term, be delivered to the provincial department of education, the academy said.

According to the school, Winfrey's commitment to the education of South African girls would continue through a national extended scholarship programme, which supports girls with academic talent in major schools across the African country.

More than 500 girls have graduated from the academy and some have attended the best universities in South Africa, the United States and Europe, according to the foundation of Oprah Winfrey.

The Gauteng provincial government will take control of the academy campus, which has 21 classrooms, six science and computer labs, a library with 10,000 volumes and a theatre with 600 seats.

Gauteng's provincial education minister, Lebogang Maile, stated that students currently enrolled in school will be able to complete their education with uninterrupted financial support.

The academy attracted international attention shortly after its inauguration in 2007, when several students accused a dormitory supervisor of having physically and sexually abused them.

Winfrey asked for an independent evaluation and went to South Africa to meet with the students and parents, whom he publicly apologized to.