Schoolchildren in Gibraltar are to be taught in Spanish as well as English under a new plan to preserve local bilingual culture, said the peninsular’s education minister.

John Cortes said he wanted to ensure local children still had a connection to Spain, which ceded the outpost to Britain in 1713 but has long called for its return.

Mr Cortes said: “The idea is that they master Spanish as well as English,” after meeting with teachers from Gibraltar’s primary and secondary schools to organise the changes to curricula for the British overseas territory’s 6,000 schoolchildren.

“The Gibraltar community has always been bilingual but in recent years the use of Spanish has deteriorated and many young people, although they understand it, do not speak it,” he told the Spanish newspaper ABC.

Mr Cortes said that locals’ ability to access TV, news and entertainment from English-speaking countries, when they once only had TVs that broadcast in Spanish, has accelerated the decline.