KARACHI, Feb 1: Sindh Governor Mohammedmian Soomro, while reiterating the government’s determination to enhance standard of education, has said that no recruitment in the educational institutions will be made directly or under the special quota system and merit will be the only criterion for admissions.

“The government has brought an end to recruitment on political basis and is strictly following the merit rule,” he claimed, while speaking at the launch ceremony of “Comprehensive English to English and Sindhi Dictionary”, here on Friday.

The three-volume dictionary with 3,800 pages, compiled by provincial secretary of agriculture Abdul Rasheed Memon, contains 0.1 million words and phrases related to medical, engineering, agriculture, law, computer science etc. It has been published by Kifayat Academy, Karachi.

Talking about the importance of quality education, the governor said making recruitment on the basis of merit through the Sindh Public Service Commission was the only purpose behind it. He said the government had taken several successful steps to eliminate the menace of unfair means in examinations.

“We have also promulgated the Compulsory Primary Education Ordinance in the province and in order to give incentives to the poor parents, the government has launched a scheme under which they will be provided with cooking oil and other food items, besides free textbooks to the students,” the governor said, adding that huge sums had been allocated for provision of free textbooks to the deserving children.

Emphasising the need to impart Information Technology education to the young generation, Mr Soomro observed that the existing syllabus should be revised according to the advancements in science and technology.

Mr Soomro said his government had planned to introduce mobile libraries in the province and appealed to the philanthropists to contribute in this regard.

He praised the efforts of the author of the dictionary and observed that link with English, because of its importance, would benefit the Sindhi language.

Earlier, publisher of the dictionary, S.M. Saeed, tracing back the history of Sindhi dictionaries, said the first English-Sindhi dictionary was prepared by Captain Stec in 1848. Other such dictionaries were published in 1854, 1879, 1933, 1942 and 1978. He said the latest work by Mr Memon was more comprehensive, which would brought Sindhi language at par with other contemporary languages.

He announced that the dictionary would be published with an addition of Urdu translation.

Provincial minister for agriculture Hassan Ali Chaniho; noted writer Ali Ahmed Brohi; Dr Fahmida Hussain, chairperson of the Shah Latif Chair at Karachi University; Hafiz Mohammad Siddique, and author of the dictionary also spoke on the occasion.

They described the dictionary as first of its kind and an encyclopaedia of the language.

Provincial minister for education Prof Anita Ghulam Ali, a large number of government officials, writers and intellectuals also attended the ceremony.—PPI