Director/PDMR Shareholding

Pearson PLC
21 April 2008


                                  PEARSON PLC
                                (the "Company")


Annual Bonus Share Matching Plan (the "Plan")

On 17 April 2008, participants became entitled to ordinary shares in the Company
("Shares") on maturity of their right to "matching shares" under the rules of
the Plan (the "Rules"). Under the Plan, participants who invest their after-tax
bonus in shares become entitled, without payment, to "matching shares" on a
one-for-one basis if a corporate performance target is met over a five year
period. In relation to awards made on 17 April 2003, the five year performance
target was met in 2008. Accordingly, under the Rules, participants are now
entitled to matching shares on a one-for-one basis.


The Rules require that sufficient shares are sold to discharge the PAYE income
tax liability on the shares released. In consequence, the shares set out in the
second column below were sold on 18 April 2008 at a price of 668.2119p per
share, leaving the after-tax number of shares set out in the final column 
below:-

Name of Director   Number of Shares Sold       Number of Shares Retained

David Bell               2545                              3663
Rona Fairhead            6297                              9062
John Makinson            5091                              7326

As a result, the executive directors named below are interested in the following
shares (excluding shares to which they may become entitled , subject to
satisfaction of any relevant conditions, under the Company's employee share
schemes):-

Name of Director              Number of Shares        % of Issued Share Capital

David Bell                         176,559                             0.02184%
Rona Fairhead                      132,522                             0.01639%
John Makinson                      313,918                             0.03883%


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