As demand for Chinese instructors heats up around the globe, distance learning may help fill the gaps in areas that lack qualified teachers.

"Statistics indicate that there are 40 million people in the world learning Chinese, while the shortage of Chinese language teachers amounts to 1.4 million," said Yang Zhijian, president of the Open University of China (OUC), who spoke at a Chinese teacher training forum held in Beijing on Aug. 12-13.

Distance learning can fill the gap between teachers and learners, said Liang Xiaoqing, director of the OUC's Chinese Language Center, in an address to forum delegates. According to Liang, the university has been cooperating with distance education institutions in countries such as France, Britain, Spain, Korea and Japan to conduct Chinese language learning programs.

Professor Yutaka Furukawa of Japan's Osaka University, who attended the forum, said distance learning would be a critical way to address the rising demand in areas of his country where normal classes are not available.

Furukawa said that the current amount of teachers in Japan still cannot meet the growing demand. The number of students studying Chinese is increasing in Japan's high schools, he said, but Chinese is only currently available in one out of every ten schools.

Additionally, many Chinese language instructors in Japan are not sufficiently qualified. Furukawa said. "It's important to improve teaching quality by retraining [teachers]," he said.

The two-day forum, hosted by the Open University of China (OUC) and China Education Television (CETV), attracted experts and scholars from over 70 national universities and institutions.