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Pearson's Prentice Hall School Marks Expansion into Career and Technology Education with Purchase of Interstate Publishers, Leaders in Agriculture Education

Upper Saddle River, NJ - January 31, 2002 - Pearson Education's Prentice Hall School Division (Pearson plc NYSE: PSO) announced today acquisition of Interstate Publishers, Inc., the leading developer of agriculture education materials. The purchase effectively positions Prentice Hall School to build on their existing offerings in the Career and Technology market.

"Prentice Hall's acquisition of the assets of Interstate Publishers allows us to add another line of excellent instructional materials to our secondary school offerings. Agriscience is a rapidly growing area, and the acquisition of Interstate is part of Prentice Hall's plan to expand into new areas of opportunity," noted Marty Smith, President of Prentice Hall, the leading school publisher in the U.S.

Interstate's market leading programs are experiencing broad-based adoption by educators across the nation, with many non-agriculture, college-bound students choosing popular courses like food science, animal science, horticulture, and natural resources and the environment for science credit toward graduation.

Prentice Hall will retain the Interstate imprint name, and Interstate CEO Vernie Thomas and Marketing Vice President Dan Pentony will work with Prentice Hall to continue to build on the exceptional products developed by Interstate. Thomas said, "Technology innovations have transformed agriculture education from what I call 'plow and sow' production agriculture courses to high-tech science-oriented offerings. I'm looking forward to working with Prentice Hall, a company which is always forward-thinking and one which has the resources to take our entire spectrum of products and make them available to so many more students and teachers."

Dr. Jasper S. Lee, one of the leading agriculture education authorities in the country, will serve as a consultant to Prentice Hall. Lee, former head of Agricultural Education at Mississippi State University, and currently adjunct professor at both North Carolina State and Clemson Universities, has been instrumental in developing the Interstate curriculum for over 25 years.

With the acquisition of Interstate's 100 plus products for all levels of instruction in fields such as animal science, horticulture, agricultural mechanics, and agricultural business and management, Pearson Education becomes the leader in the secondary and post-secondary agricultural education market.

About Pearson Education

With offices in 33 countries, Pearson Education is the world's leading education business. Its brands include Addison Wesley, Allyn & Bacon, Benjamin Cummings, Longman, Prentice Hall, Pearson Learning, Scott Foresman, and NCS Pearson. Pearson Education is the global leader in online learning with over 1,800 textbook companion Web sites, NCS Learn, the InformIT portal for technology professionals, and Pearson's Learning Network, the award-winning learning portal for parents, teachers, and children. Pearson is the global education business of Pearson plc (NYSE: PSO), the international media group. For more information, visit http://www.pearsoned.com.

About Interstate Publishers, Inc.

Interstate, with over 100 front list titles, is one of the oldest and most respected names in agriculture education, having published quality products continuously for this market for 70 years. The company published its first textbook in the field of agriculture in 1932. From 1932 until 1987, Interstate operated as both a publisher and leading commercial printer. In 1987, Interstate divested itself of the printing operation in order to concentrate solely on the development of products that meet the needs of agricultural education. Interstate's corporate offices are in Danville, Illinois.