Director Shareholding

Pearson PLC
22 April 2003







22 April 2003





RNS

The London Stock Exchange

Old Broad Street

London EC2N 1HP





Dear Sirs


Pearson plc - Notification of Directors' Interests


Pearson operates the Annual Bonus Share Matching Plan (the "Plan") whereby
executive directors and certain senior executives are able to elect to invest up
to half of their annual bonus in ordinary shares in the Company ("shares"). The
participant is then entitled to receive, after tax thereon, one additional share
free of charge for every share left in trust for five years (or half that number
of additional shares after three years). Entitlement to the additional shares is
dependent on Pearson satisfying a corporate performance target and will normally
be lost if the participant leaves Pearson's employment.


The directors named below have informed the Company on 17 April 2003 that they
have purchased shares in order to participate in the Plan in respect of annual
bonuses for 2002. The purchase price for all of these shares was 546p per share.


Director              Shares            Resultant        Percentage
                      Purchased         Holding          Holding


J C Makinson            7,326           36,659           0.00457%

D C M Bell              3,663           54,602           0.00681%

R A Fairhead            9,062            9,622           0.00120%





Yours faithfully






Stephen Jones

Deputy Secretary






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