Director Shareholding

Pearson PLC
20 April 2005


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
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.

Participants in the Plan who leave the Company with "good leaver" status under
the Plan rules are entitled to receive a matching award of Shares, scaled down
to reflect their period of service. The 3 year performance condition on the 2002
award has recently been met and as such, the Company is now in a position to
make scaled down awards of Shares to a small number of ex-employees who left
Pearson with "good leaver" status.

The Shares required to satisfy these awards have been sourced from an employee
benefit trust established by the Company. As a result of the release of Shares
described above, the number of Shares held by Mourant & Co Trustees Limited (as
trustee of the Pearson plc Employee Share Ownership Trust) is 365,729 Shares
(representing 0.046% of the Company's issued ordinary share capital).

No executive directors have received Shares as a result of this release of
Shares.

Each of the executive directors of the Company is for Companies Act purposes,
regarded as interested in all the shares held by this trust. Despite the
technical interest in all the Shares each executive director will only be
entitled to receive from the Trust that number of Shares to which he or she is
entitled under share plans operated by the Company in which he or she
participates.



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