The National Employers Organisation for School Teachers argues that without such a move, the best graduates will continue to turn to other careers.

Graham Lane tells BBC News 24: "We need to make it a much more attractive profession"

It proposes a substantial pay increase for teachers in return for a new contract which could include shorter holidays and a re-organised school year.

The organisation's chairman, Graham Lane, said a 13% in applications for teacher training courses pointed to a staffing crisis in schools.

"If nothing happens, by 2002 we could see a serious teacher shortage in a number of our classrooms," he said on the opening day of the Local Government Association's annual conference in Bournemouth.

"It is possible by then that we may not have enough teachers to deliver the government's class size pledges, as school rolls rise.

Teachers could lose some of their holidays in return for better pay

"If we end up with children being sent home because there aren't enough teachers to teach them, we would then see a dramatic urgency about how to tackle the recruitment crisis. What we are saying is let's do it now."

Ministers are encouraging schools in the recently-announced Education Action Zones to suspend national pay and conditions agreements, allowing schools to pay teachers more and make room for innovations like a longer school day.

But Mr Lane said this "ad hoc" approach was a recipe for confrontation and that only a national inquiry covering all aspects of teachers' pay and conditions could successfully deliver change.

BBC Radio 5 Live's Lesley Ashmall examines the pay issue

Bright young graduates were currently voting with their feet, he said, taking better paid, better supported and more rewarding jobs.

"They don't want to spend their time in over-sized classes, photocopying their own lesson plans, working until late every evening and then finding they spend the first week of their holidays recovering from exhaustion."

Mr Lane said the inquiry should look at the scope for more use of classroom assistants to shoulder administrative burdens; at pay, linking higher salaries to higher attainment; and at the school year, examining the benefits of a five-term year with shorter summer holidays.