South Korea's government said Monday that information on the level of education will be deleted from public officials' personnel records starting this month in a bid to promote a merit-based personnel management system.

The Ministry of Personnel Management said information with low relevance to duty, such as academic background, height, weight and marital status, will be deleted from the personnel records. Still, the officials' college majors will remain recorded.

The ministry has finished modifying related regulations as of March and also completed improving the electronic management system with a plan to implement the changes starting this month.

The information on the officials' performance evaluation, as well as foreign language proficiency and other certificates will be provided so as to facilitate better management of personnel, according to the ministry.

The ministry, however, said the information on academic background and physical condition won't be completely deleted but stored in the government's internal system.

"There has been criticism that public personnel management is swayed by reputation and subjective opinions," a ministry official said. "With the revision in the system, we are expecting a merit-based principle to take root in the public sector." (Yonhap)