The impact that a South African programme has made on the education of children has earned it a prestigious international award.

Partners for Possibility, the flagship programme of Symphonia for South Africa, was one of six winners in the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) awards, which recognises and promotes innovative projects across the world that aim to address challenges in education.

The programme, founded by Dr Louise van Rhyn, aims to improve the quality of education by capacitating principals at under-resourced schools and building their leadership skills by partnering them with business leaders.

Participants in the programme go through a 12-month leadership development programme while tackling the challenges their schools face, together with their partners.

Van Rhyn said to date, her initiative has benefited 1 630 principals and business leaders, while 625 000 pupils have benefited.

"To be recognised as the winner of the 2018 WISE Awards is a very special achievement," Van Rhyn said.

"It means that the Partners for Possibility programme meets the criteria of being a creative solution to a pressing educational challenge, that is, reducing the inequalities in the South African education system," she said.

"We are humbled to have a global platform to share the insights and solutions of the programme, as well as the opportunity to shed light on how its innovations can be applied to other industries and countries."

The five other 2018 WISE Awards winners are Safe Spaces Clubs for Girls in Nigeria, One Village One Pre-School in China, Generation in the USA, Technology-Based Deaf Education in Pakistan, and 1001 Nights Life Skills and Citizenship Education Program in Canada.

Other educational issues that entrants to the 2018 WISE Awards attempted to address include projects for girls' education, early childhood education, the refugee crisis, cultural exchange, citizenship values, youth employment, entrepreneurship in disadvantaged communities, deaf education, and stimulating critical and creative thinking.