Education director-general Pkharuddin Ghazali said although these principals will have autonomy in choosing students, they still needed guidelines to assess potential students and make a direct offer to them.

He said in the past, the ministry had given such autonomous powers to headmasters admitting students for boarding schools. This was also true for vocational school heads.

He said places were still available at Form 6 colleges and headmasters can admit those applying, Bernama reported him as saying after opening the 30th National Seminar on Educational Leadership towards Malaysia Madani in Nilai today.

Yesterday, education minister Fadhlina Sidek said principals will be allowed to make direct offers to potential students who need the opportunity to continue their studies, without having to wait for an offer from the ministry as in previous years.