Two parents and a pupil are being invited to join Dundee City Council’s education committee but they will not be allowed to vote.
A debate on Monday evening saw the SNP administration say the move would offer a way for new voices to be heard.
However, the Labour opposition suggested it would be like using a ”toy phone” that no one was listening to.
The new system will see the committee have one representative for primary school parents, one for secondary school parents and one for secondary school pupils. They will join 29 elected members and the existing representatives of staff and religious groups.
Education convener Stewart Hunter said the city council had been keen to provide ways for young people to express themselves, such as the youth council and having a pupil representative on the project boards overseeing the building of new schools.
This was the next step for them, as it would be for parents and he believed they would make a ”valuable contribution” to the committee’s deliberations.
Labour education spokesman Laurie Bidwell said he welcomed the proposal ”as far as it goes”. However, he claimed not allowing the new members a vote risked turning them into second-class members of the committee.
”I once heard the accusation that local government participation schemes are often likened to a toy phone,” he said. ”You may shout down the phone, but as it’s not connected, it does make much of a difference. It just allows the speaker on the phone to get whatever is perplexing them off their chest, but of course it remains unresolved,” he said.
Liberal Democrat Fraser Macpherson also spoke up in favour of giving the parents and pupil voting rights.
However, Mr Hunter said he was not fully convinced this would be the right move for parents or pupils, although he left the door open to look at the issue again in the future.
”I don’t think this is something appropriate for this moment in time,” he said.
Councillors voted 17 to 12 to support the convener’s position.
The parents and pupil will each serve one-year terms once they are appointed, although they will be eligible for re-nomination at the end of that period.