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.