BEIJING, Nov. 28 -- The country needs about 11,000 more Chinese language teachers who are qualified to teach foreigners, as a growing number of people from overseas are learning Mandarin.

    Educators discussed the shortage at a seminar on the business of teaching Chinese held at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics over the weekend. More than 100 Chinese language scholars and researchers attended the two-day meeting.

    Last year, a record 110,844 students from 178 countries came to study at universities all over the country, a 43 percent increase from 2003.

    Meanwhile, more than 30 million people are currently learning Chinese abroad. Chinese has became a popular course at about 2,300 universities in 100 countries.

    Educators said the number of foreign students attending Chinese universities will expand by 30 percent a year, while 100 million people are expected to study the language abroad by 2010.

    "The significant growth in the number of Chinese learners has created valuable opportunities for Chinese and foreign culture exchanges, but we also came to realize that we are severely short of a qualified faculty team," said Xu Lin, director of the China National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language.

    The country has launched a qualification assessment system for Chinese-language teachers. However, only about 3,000 people have passed the test.

    Most of the working Chinese language teachers are university graduates with basic English communication abilities but no professional training, officials said.

    Earlier, the Ministry of Education has pledged to set up a reserve of 10,000 Chinese teachers to be sent abroad over the next five years.

(Source: China Daily)