This comes after two decades of an initiative focused on educating the brightest girls from low-income backgrounds. Media mogul and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey has announced that The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls (OWLAG), her school in South Africa, will shut down at the end of the 2027 academic year.
Winfrey told the Today show that it was a “strategy change not an end of commitment” rather than the closing down of the commitment to educating girls.
Her foundation, under the new plan, would increase its scholarship provision enabling South African girls to attend various elite schools across the country rather than be restricted to a single campus.
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Winfrey believes this new direction will provide a more effective pathway to reach significantly more beneficiaries while keeping the original vision and objective in place. Founded after a conversation with former President Nelson Mandela, the institution was built in 2007 to offer world-class education and leadership development to girls from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The school has since celebrated over 1,000 graduates, who go on to either complete higher education or pursue other avenues as professionally active individuals both South Africa and globally. Winfrey stressed that all students will be able to complete their education at the current campus, without any interruptions.
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For students who would not be part of the graduating class by 2027, full funding to attend a different elite institution would be provided, whereas the facility itself would be handed over to the Gauteng Department of Education according to their agreement.
The department has since said they intend to protect the school’s legacy and its purpose.
The campus, initially attracting widespread global acclaim when it opened in South Africa at an estimated cost of $40 million – despite some controversy regarding its lavish facilities and initial management problems has been defended by Winfrey and school administrators, who deny that issues surrounding mismanagement played any role in their decision to switch strategies and open doors for many more disadvantaged girls beyond the campus.
