KUALA LUMPUR—A Malaysian scheme to train local people as maids to reduce dependence on foreign workers has failed due to poor pay, it was reported Tuesday.

The government last year launched a course to create “home managers” who were told they could earn up to 2,000 ringgit ($305) a month—four times what Malaysians commonly pay domestic helpers from Indonesia.

But training organization Institut Karisma told the New Straits Times newspaper that the graduates of six courses carried out so far had refused the low wages on offer.

“I have received several requests for home managers but these employers are only willing to pay 400 ringgit a month,” the institute’s manager Shah Amirudin Idris told the newspaper.

“Although home managers are a level higher, it is unfortunate that they likened the job to that of domestic helpers. It is a noble job.” Deputy Human Resources Minister Maznah Mazlan told parliament on Monday that wages and conditions would have to be boosted to woo local women to work as maids.

State media reported the minister as saying that a survey found that only 6.7 per cent of Malaysians were willing to pay more than 700 ringgit per month for a maid.

Malaysian households employ nearly 320,000 foreign maids—mostly from Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia and Sri Lanka—part of a huge foreign workforce which the government is trying to reduce.

Indonesia last week said it would stop sending its nationals to Malaysia at least until a mid-July meeting in Kuala Lumpur to discuss a new migrant worker agreement.

The ban came after the latest case of maid abuse, where a 43-year-old Malaysian woman was charged earlier this month with causing grievous bodily harm against her Indonesian maid.

The maid was allegedly beaten repeatedly with a cane and scalded with boiling water.