Acquisition

Pearson PLC
25 April 2006



25 April 2006


PEARSON ENTERS TEACHER CERTIFICATION MARKET:


ACQUIRES NATIONAL EVALUATION SYTEMS,
AMERICA'S LEADING TEACHER CERTIFICATION TESTING COMPANY


Pearson, the international education and information company, today announced
that it has agreed to acquire National Evaluation Systems, Inc (NES).


NES is the leading provider of customised state assessments for teacher
certification in the US. It works under contract with state education agencies,
developing and administering licensure tests for prospective teachers who want
to enter the profession, teach a new subject or work in a new state.


NES has long-term contracts with fifteen states, customising teacher
certification tests to each states' curriculum standards in more than 100
subject areas and providing approximately one million tests each year. It
manages the entire testing process from research, test development and
psychometrics through to test administration, processing and scoring. Its
average contract length is five years and many of its contracts have lasted well
over a decade. Founded in 1972, NES is based in Amherst, Massachusetts, with
regional offices and scoring centres in Sacramento, California; Albany, New
York; and Austin, Texas.


Teacher certification testing is a growing market, driven by the US government's
requirement for 'highly qualified' teachers and by the need for new teachers to
enter the profession. There are approximately three million public school
teachers in the US. Approximately 2.5 million new teachers will need to be hired
in the current decade, as 700,000 current teachers retire and 1.8 million are
expected to leave the profession prior to retirement. On average, nearly 6% of
the teacher workforce does not return for each new academic year and half of all
new teachers leave the profession within five years. Emphasizing the recruitment
and retention of 'highly qualified' teachers and mandating that all 'core
subject' public school teachers must be certified, the US Congress allocated $3
billion per year for teacher training and development when it reauthorized the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act which includes the provisions of No Child
Left Behind.


NES had sales of $73m in 2005 and gross assets of $16m at the year end. Pearson
expects the acquisition to enhance adjusted earnings per share and return on
invested capital from 2007, its first full year. It expects the acquisition to
be earnings neutral in 2006, including integration costs.


As part of Pearson, NES will operate alongside Pearson Educational Measurement,
the US market leader in student assessment and testing. Pearson has long-term
contracts with more than 20 states to develop, administer, score and report the
results of student assessments against state curriculum standards, and works
with the US Department of Education to deliver the National Assessment of
Educational Progress ('The Nation's Report Card'). Pearson is also a leader in
assessing and certifying professional people through its international
professional testing business, Pearson VUE.


Steve Dowling, President of Pearson's School companies, said:


"The teacher is the key to student learning. This move into teacher
certification testing is a natural fit with our existing School testing
capabilities and takes us into another growth market. Pearson's focus is all
about improving student achievement, and helping states to identify and certify
qualified teachers and providing teachers with services to get certified is at
the core of that goal. NES is a pioneer in this field and has talented
leadership and employees who will be great assets to Pearson."


Dr. William Gorth, President and CEO of NES, said:


"We are excited to join Pearson, which has outstanding assets in education and
the resources to grow the business."

ENDS

Further information


Luke Swanson/ Simon Mays-Smith/ Deborah Lincoln: [phone]
Wendy Spiegel: [phone]/ David Hakensen: [phone]


About Pearson Education

Educating 100 million people worldwide, Pearson Education (www.pearsoned.com) is
the global leader in educational publishing, providing scientifically
research-based print and digital programmes to help students of all ages learn
at their own pace, in their own way. Almost all students in America learn from a
Pearson programme at some point in their educational career. Some 25,000 US
schools and one million teachers and students use Pearson technology to help
instruct preK-12 students and manage how they are doing. Pearson provides
schools with custom services to create, deliver, score and report educational
assessments, both in print and online, that help promote learning. Pearson is
the market leader in Higher Education in print and digital products and serves
more than three million college students who are pursuing their courses online
using our programmes and applications. The company is home to such renowned
publishing brands as Pearson Prentice Hall, Pearson Longman, Pearson Scott
Foresman, Pearson Early Learning, Pearson Learning Group, Pearson Digital
Learning, and Pearson Addison Wesley. Pearson Education is part of Pearson (LSE:
PSON; NYSE: PSO). In addition to Pearson Education, Pearson's primary operations
include the Financial Times Group and the Penguin Group.






                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange