The Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw has called for the Government to deploy an army of top teachers in schools failing their poorest pupils.

Teachers could be offered incentives such as bigger pay packets, higher status and faster career progression to sign up to become a National Service Teacher in "less fashionable, more remote or challenging places".

In a major speech, Sir Michael warned there is an "invisible minority" of disadvantaged children living in "leafy suburbs, market towns or seaside resorts" who are being let down by their schools.

These youngsters are under-performing and coasting until they leave school at the earliest opportunity.

He says: "The quality of education is the most important issue facing Britain today. In the long term, our success as a nation - our prosperity, our security, our society - depends on how well we raise and educate our young people across the social spectrum."

In the last 20 to 30 years, standards in schools in major cities such as London, Birmingham, Greater Manchester, Liverpool and Leicester have been transformed, and problems of under-achievement have shifted to deprived coastal towns and rural areas of the country, especially in the East and South East of England.

There are also a significant number of poorer children in reasonably rich areas such as Kettering, Wokingham, Norwich and Newbury, who are being failed.

Sir Michael added: "These poor, unseen children can be found in mediocre schools the length and breadth of our country. They are labelled, buried in lower sets, consigned to indifferent teaching. They coast through education until - at the earliest opportunity - they sever their ties with it."

Sir Michael's speech comes as Ofsted publishes a new report looking at the gap in attainment between advantaged and disadvantaged pupils across the education system.