The commission's report noted that children's schoolwork could suffer because of back pain caused by unsuitable furniture, causing distraction, disruptive behaviour and school absence.
This in turn was "storing up problems" for the future workforce, the report found.
"Sitting for extended periods on chairs that are of inappropriate size and that lack ergonomic design, and at desks or tables whose height relative to the chair is incorrect will be uncomfortable, will reduce attention and is recognised as a major cause of back pain in adolescence and later life," the report warned.
FIRA research comparing the measurements of 1,500 children in 2001 with data from 1971 found that the average height of children has increased at the rate of 1cm a decade, with most of the growth occurring in the lower leg. Children's arms are growing at an even faster rate, and are now 10-15% longer than they were 30 years ago.
During the same period children have become heavier, with average weights of 10 stone 8lbs for boys and 9 stone 6lbs for girls being reached by the age of 16, two years earlier than the same average in 1971.
Dominic Savage, Director General of BESA, helped launch FIRA's Safe seats of learning initiative in May, which called on manufacturers, suppliers and schools to adopt furniture which adhered to the European standard EN1729. On the same day FIRA also unveiled its Certification Scheme for School Furniture, the criteria for which vastly exceeds the European standard.
"Pupils whose environment is comfortable will perform better. All of this data supported the belief that our children are likely to be spending thousands of hours of their school lives on chairs and at desks and tables where their posture is poor and the potential for damage to their backs is great," the report concludes.
Levent Çaglar, Head of Ergonomics at FIRA, said: "As the chair of the European Standards committee for school furniture I have ensured that the data collected in the 2001 UK survey together with other European data was used in developing standard EN1729.
"The FIRA product Certification scheme goes far beyond the scope of the standard, and is the only mechanism for identifying furniture which not only matches the size of children, but also provides solutions for new learning environments in which children can learn more effectively".
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