Cape Coast, June 22, GNA - Mr Stephen Korsah, Head of Museum Education in-charge of Cape Coast and Elmina Castles on Thursday, called on Government to improve conditions of service of staff at the castles to attract qualified personnel.

He noted that the Education Department of Cape Coast Castle that was under-staffed now had only four permanent staff and two of them would retire within the next three years.

Mr Korsah, who made the call when interacting with newsmen at the Cape Coast Castle, said management had engaged the services of volunteer guides, school service officers and students on attachment to arrest the situation.

He said there was the urgent need for castles to be put under a ministry, to provide a lasting solution to the problems related to working conditions of the staff.

The Head of Museum Education said there had been considerable increase of both local and foreign tourists to the castles since January and while 270 million cedis was realized from 11,042 visitors between January and April last year, 565 million cedis was realised from 19,336 tourists within the same period this year.

He said visits to the castles reached their climax during summer when foreign students throng the country to spend their holidays visiting places of interests.

Mr Korsah said inspite of the huge revenue being generated for the government no serious renovation works had taken place at the castles especially the roofs that leaked when it rained.

He said major renovation works at the castles were undertaken in 1996 but did not yield the desired results because after the works the place begun leaking.

Mr Korsah said management had lodged a complaint with the appropriate authorities and the contractor who did the work was being prevailed upon to rectify the anomaly.

He said children who were non-Ghanaians paid two dollars or its equivalent in cedis, while foreign students and foreign adults paid four and seven dollars or its equivalent in cedis respectively, as gate fees on their visit to the castles.

Mr Korsah said Ghanaian students in the Junior Secondary School (JSS) paid 2,000 cedis, Senior Secondary School (SSS) students with Identity cards paid 3,000 cedis, Tertiary students with Identity cards, 5,000 cedis and adults paid 10,000 cedis as gate fees.

He said those who visited the castles with video camera paid 10,000 cedis and those with 'still' camera paid 5,000 cedis, while Ghanaians who entered the castles for commercial photography also paid between 500,000 cedis and 1,500,000 cedis and their foreign counterparts paid between 1,500 dollars and 2,500 dollars or their equivalent in cedis. A source at the castle, confirming the poor conditions of service of the staff said a security officer who had worked for 25 years as at 2002 took home 500,000 cedis as his net salary.