&c1=usa&c2=(none)&c3=The+Observer&c4=Pearson+(Media),Press+and+publishing,Business,Media,Education,Observer&c5=&c6=Frank+Kane,+business+editor&c7=2003_04_14){kind=small}
- The Observer, Sunday April 13 2003
Pearson, the publishing and information group that owns the Financial Times, is to become a major player on the British educational scene via a link-up with Edexcel, the examinations board at the centre of controversy two years ago for its running of schools exams.
Confidential talks have been taking place for some weeks, and a deal could be signed before the end of the month. Final details are still being discussed, with the current preferred option a joint venture. But a takeover by Pearson of Edexcel has not been ruled out.
Although the deal would be small in terms of Pearson's finances - it had turnover of £4.3 billion last year compared with Edexcel's revenue of around £93 million - it would signal a revolution in British education.
Pearson wants to run Edexcel along the lines of its successful American business NCS, which handles all aspects of the US examination and training systems for state and federal agencies. Extending this to Britain would mean that the exam system, which is currently biased towards paper-based distribution, marking and storage, would be scanned and stored electronically, giving teachers, markers and students easier access and retrieval.
It would also reduce the risk of lost or stolen exam papers, for which Edexcel was severely criticised in 2001, when thousands of papers went missing.
It is believed the Pearson-Edexcel deal has been approved at the highest level at the Department for Education and Skills, which supervises the exams regulator the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. The QCA was itself the focus of a political row last summer over re-grading of A-level papers.
Pearson chairman Lord Stevenson, one of the Government's favoured business figures, is said to have taken a personal interest in the Edexcel proposal and to have discussed it with Charles Clarke, the Education Secretary.
Edexcel chief executive John Kerr, who is credited with improving the company's performance since the difficulties of 2001, is also involved in the talks. Edexcel is a company limited by guarantee with charitable status. Its income comes from fees charged to schools and other public bodies for sitting accredited exams.
The deal will involve a multi-million pound injection of resources by Pearson, which is believed necessary to modernise the creaking British exams system. A Pearson spokesman declined to comment last night.
