Latin is set to make a return to the classroom under plans which would see it given the same status as modern foreign languages.

Ministers are understood to be preparing to sweep away guidance which would have effectively restricted primaries to teaching languages such as French, German and Spanish.

A review of the UK national curriculum is expected to look at language learning in detail.

But ministers have said they believe it is down to teachers to judge whether they should offer classical languages alongside modern ones.

The last Labour government introduced proposals to make it an “entitlement” from next year for primary age pupils to learn a modern language, which effectively discouraged schools from putting classics like Latin on the timetable.

The proposals in Labour’s last Education Bill were scrapped in the run-up to the election, although many primaries were already preparing for the change.

Speaking at a Politeia conference on Latin in primaries in central London, schools minister Nick Gibb said it was “a shame” and “alarming” that the teaching of Latin in state schools had been hit.

The ancient language is prevalent in English culture, in political and legal systems, religious and spiritual institutions, medicine, botany and horticulture and art and architecture, Mr Gibb said.