George Frew's view

TO witness democracy in action, it was only necessary to present yourself outside County Hall on Wednesday morning morning.

As a pale yellow sun danced and glittered on the roofs and windows of Oxford, a wind with teeth provided a timely reminder that winter had yet to loosen its grip.

But the 100 or so demonstrators who had gathered to let councillors know exactly what they thought of proposals to turn education in Oxford into a two-tier business were in a defiantly confident mood.

Whatever happened at the forthcoming debate and whatever decisions were made over their children's future, the spring would bring further opportunities to register their protest and if the worse came to the worse and middle schools full of thriving pupils were scrapped, well, there was always the ombudsman of a government elected on an "Education, education, education" ticket to turn to. And so the teachers, parents and pupils concerned raised their carefully-prepared home-made banners and placards and kept up a steady SOS chant: "Save Our Schools".

The placards were blunt and to the point. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," one said. Martin Thomas, Head of Temple Cowley Middle School, was equally scathing about the two-tier proposals.

"This is democracy not in action, as far as the councillors are concerned," he said. "The whole idea is very bad. Middle schools have much better facilities than primary schools and there is also the social and passive issues -- children are not bullied at middle schools or threatened by older pupils.

"The kids don't want it and the parents like the current set-up but the sums have been done and I think only two or three Labour councillors will vote against it. But this could be the beginning of bringing more people into the campaign."

Mr Thomas, who is 57, faces redundancy if the two-tier plan is implemented. So do many of his colleagues. But when the county's chief education officer Graham Badman arrived, the ripe cacophony of booing which greeted him suggested that the protesters would not weep bitter tears to see him redundant.

The chant went up again. "Save our schools!" Some of the smaller protesters had grown tired of this game and had taken to chasing each other around the tree outside County Hall instead. More councillors arrived, a few clutching steaming cups of coffee from the stall up the road. A couple of them looked as if they wished they were carrying something a lot stronger.

Inside at reception, some more sat around, looking like patients in a dentist's waiting room with the prospect of root-canal work facing them.

Just before 10am, everyone filed inside Committee Rooms One, Two and Three. Well, those who could get in did. The rest of us strolled up to the council chamber itself, where a video link with the proceedings had been provided.

The chamber itself has a curved, ascending seating arrangement, waves of democracy washing down to the debating floor. From the walls, stern portraits of former city fathers glowered fiercely in the soft light.

Gareth Griffiths is the chairman of the Parents' and Friends' Association of Temple Cowley Middle School. He said he'd asked the county council to give him a guarantee that a two-tier system would be better for his two children and that they'd been unable to give him that guarantee.

"If it's all down to penny-pinching with kids then that's sad," he said. He added that as far as he could see, there had been no clear mandate for change and that he thought an elected government of a city therefore couldn't change things. He had moved to Oxford from North Avon's two-tier system system and his children had flourished here.

And now this.

On the big screen in the chamber, no-one was tempted to mug for the video camera in Committee Rooms One, Two and Three. Nevertheless, the whole thing looked like a fly-on-the-wall documentary.

Above the screen, the city coat of arms atop an arch depicts a blood-red ox and a horse, both rampant, surmounted by what, from where I am sitting, looks suspiciously like a large, fat sheep.

In Committee Rooms One, Two and Three, the feeling had been that the pupils and teachers and parents were all lambs to the slaughter anyway, but still, democracy was at work and the councillors had graciously agreed to let the people speak.

And so Hilary Seale, chairman of the Speedwell school governing body, got to her feet off-camera and spoke of the goal posts being moved yet again. Council chairman Douglas Spencer (Con) reminded her that she had five minutes to get her message across.

She reminded him that it was a matter of shame to the LEA that a Mori poll had revealed that two-thirds of the population had not been aware of the proposed changes.

The councillors did not look in the least bit ashamed. Mr Spencer tried three (that number just kept coming up) times to halt Ms Seale's oratory before he got fed up with her and tried to move things on. Still, she managed to assure him that her group would continue to oppose the two-tier tyranny.

Other parties affected were given their five minute chance to speak and afterwards, in this hall of democracy, the people had spoken. Some had spoken more eloquently than others, but all had spoken with one voice and it was a voice that said, "Three cheers for three tiers."

As lunchtime approached, the vote was taken and came out as 19-2 in favour of change.

The reaction was surprisingly muted. As the protesters drifted away, the councillors lunched on plump roast chicken and crisp roast potatoes, with seasonal vegetables. No-one seemed to have lost their appetite.

Graham Badman said that no, the booing earlier had not bothered him. He added that a decision had been made and now it was his job to make sure that it worked.

The two who opposed the motion, Tom Richardson (Lab ) Sushila Dhall (Green) were firm in their conviction, although the latter was unavailable for comment.

Councillor Richardson -- in the job for 20 years -- admitted that voting against his own party had hurt. He said: "But I spoke against it, so I voted against it," he added.

"No-one knows about the education argument. It's nebulous. No-one knows where we'll be in five years. Issues will arrive that no-one has thought of. Parents who stopped me after the vote were very angry and we may well have a judicial review of how we have handled this matter. But if this decision is implemented in September 2003, it will be a decision which has been made for all the wrong reasons."

By then, most of the protesters had left and drifted off into the winter sunshine. They had, of course, always suspected that it would all end in (two) tiers.

But the Oxford spring was still to come.

By George Frew

Story date: February 3, 2000

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