Education CommitteeFurther written evidence submitted by Pearson (Annex D)

Pearson no longer uses a shared cover design for resources produced by Pearson’s publishing imprints in support of specifications produced by Edexcel.

This is for two reasons:

We believe that a shared design can unhelpfully overstate the link between the examination specification and the book—which will very often go beyond the specification and be suitable for broader purposes.

Secondly, through our endorsement policy we work very hard to ensure a choice of books for teachers, so they can pick their resources in accordance with their own teaching styles, class context and preferences, and maximise engagement. We want to make this clearer, as our research indicates to us that engagement is the most important factor in teacher choice.

We currently endorse well over 300 books from other publishers that support our qualifications. All of these are entitled to and do make prominent use of the Edexcel logo to make it clear to teachers that these are resources that they can feel confident to use as alternatives to texts that we offer. Some examples of how they are put together are included in the attachment. Given some of the quotes from jackets shared with members in the Committee session, and the language on some of the books in the attachment around success in examinations, how this should be managed industry wide in the future is something we would urge the Committee to consider. Pearson are keen to collaborate on this.

March 2012