ABC News39%
Oprah Winfrey says she will close her school for girls in South Africa next year 15%
By MICHELLE GUMEDE Associated Press0%
7/31/2026, 4:51:17 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 11 faulty reasoning types, including Availability Heuristic, Appeal to Authority, and Hasty Generalization, with Sunk Cost Effect as the most egregious example at 10% saturation with 34 hits. Analysis detected 237 faulty-reasoning hits from 341 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 29.8% and a BS Rank of 15% (19,471 of 22,840 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 85.20% of the article peer group.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Oprah Winfrey says she will close the school for underprivileged girls she set up in South Africa two decades ago at the end of next year.
Winfrey opened the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in 2007 after being inspired by conversations with former South African President Nelson Mandela about the transformative power of educating girls.
He was among the guests at the school's opening ceremony.
Winfrey's charitable foundation ran and funded the school, but it was always part of the agreement that the academy campus near Johannesburg be ultimately handed over to the provincial education department, the academy said.
“The dream was never simply to build a school,” Winfrey said in a statement issued by the academy on Wednesday.
“It was to invest in the limitless potential of young women.
That mission doesn’t end with one campus.
It continues in every girl whose future can be transformed through education.”
The academy said Winfrey’s commitment to educating South African girls would continue through an expanded national scholarship program supporting academically talented girls at leading schools across the country.
More than 500 girls have graduated from the academy and some have attended top universities in South Africa, the United States and Europe, according to the Oprah Winfrey Charitable Foundation.
The Gauteng provincial government will take over the 52-acre academy campus, which has 21 classrooms, six science and computer laboratories, a 10,000-volume library and a 600-seat theater.
It did not immediately say what the plans for the property were.
Gauteng Provincial Minister for Education Lebogang Maile said those currently enrolled in the school will be able to complete their education with uninterrupted financial support.
The academy drew international attention shortly after opening in 2007 when several students accused a dormitory matron of physically and sexually abusing them.
Winfrey traveled to South Africa to meet with students and parents, publicly apologized, and commissioned an independent investigation.
The matron was acquitted of criminal charges in 2010.
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