A "landmark decision" to open up the meetings of a parliamentary select committee on education was announced last night.

And Stanley Lowe, the Speaker of the House of Assembly, told MPs that the issue of whether all parliamentary committees should meet in public — as called for by this newspaper's A Right To Know: Giving People Power campaign and the British House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee — is to be decided soon.

Mr. Lowe said the Joint Select Committee on Education, which has been tasked with reviewing the implementation of educational reform in the Island's public schools, made a request to the Rules and Privileges Committee of the House to hold its meeting in public.

The Rules and Privileges Committee — which is chaired by Mr. Lowe and whose members are Premier Ewart Brown, Opposition Leader Kim Swan, former Premier Jennifer Smith, Government Whip Glenn Blakeney and Opposition Chief Whip John Barritt — met on Thursday and agreed that the cross-party committee could meet in public on a trial basis.

Mr. Lowe said: "Please also be advised that the Rules and Privileges Committee has made the decision with respect to this committee only, as we currently have under review the rules of this honourable house, which includes the matter of committees being opened to the public.

"The practice will be done on a trial basis, as an overall assessment concerning the way forward is to be established in the near future. That is a landmark decision made by this committee."

Neletha Butterfield, chairman of the Joint Select Committee on Education, told The Royal Gazette it was vital for such an important committee to be transparent and crucial for parents to know what decisions were being taken regarding their children's education.

"We are quite pleased about the decision of the Rules and Privileges Committee," said the former Education Minister. "The Speaker did say it was a landmark.

"We will be the first and it was very important that we did go to the Speaker — I myself personally went — because education is very important. I believe that the public should be involved."

Former Opposition Leader Grant Gibbons, a member of the joint select committee, said: "I think it's a very good step and we'll certainly do a lot to bring forward some of the important issues that need to be addressed in the education area.

The committee is expected to hold its next meeting in October, when public and press will be invited to attend.

The bipartisan committee aims to produce a report for Parliament by November on how successfully the ten key recommendations in the infamous 2007 Hopkins report on public schools have been implemented.