Two Sekolah Agama Rakyat (SAR) in Perlis are willing to be taken over by the government for the sake of their teachers and students.

According to a Bernama report, Sekolah Menengah Al-Islahiah Behor Mali and Sekolah Rendah Al-Islahiah Behor Mali board of management chairman Zahari Bakar had agreed to the move as he sympathised with the 50 teachers.

This is because the teachers were depending on students' school fees and state government aid for payment of their salaries, which sometimes they had to make do with an initial half-month salary due to financial constraint.

"Their pay is only between RM500 and RM1,000 although some of them are university graduates," Zahari was quoted as saying.

The schools, located in the same area, were founded in 1948 and now have more than 500 students.

Untrained teachers

Zahari said the school administration also took a serious view of the fact that the students were being taught by untrained teachers.

The only trained teacher at Al-Islahiah, he said, was the religious teacher sent by the State Education Department.

"In view of this situation, the government is welcomed to take over the schools if it wants to," said Zahari, who is also the Simpang Empat State Assemblyman.

Sekolah Menengah Al-Islahiah acting principal Azizan Chin also welcomed the idea of the government taking over the schools to ensure the well being of the teachers and students.

The Al-Islahiah school complex has two double-storey blocks serving as the secondary school, a canteen, a living skills workshop, two hostel blocks, a surau and an administrative block.

There is also a single-storey block for primary school pupils.

Better future

The Al-Islahiah Parents' Consultative Council chairman Abdul Wahab Bakar also supported the move to let the government take over the school administration.

Although the students were now following the syllabus set by the Education Ministry, they would have a better future if the schools were run by the government, he said.

"If these schools are taken over by the government, maybe more trained teachers would be sent there and the existing teachers would be given proper training," he said.

The government has decided to stop giving aid to SAR because it says they are not teaching Islamic teachings but are sowing hatred of the government among students.

The government has also said students of SAR could be absorbed into national schools.