Agency for Language Development and Cultivation


The Agency for Language Development and Cultivation, formerly the Language and Book Development Agency and the Language Centre, is the institution responsible for standardising and regulating the Indonesian language as well as maintaining the indigenous languages of Indonesia. It is an agency under the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education of Indonesia.
To support the implementation of its duties, this agency has 30 Language Center/Office units spread throughout Indonesia.

History

The agency was founded in 1947 as the Language and Culture Research Institute, part of the University of Indonesia. It was headed by Gerrit Jan Held. Parallel to this, the newly formed Indonesian government, having just declared independence in 1945, created the Balai Bahasa in March 1948. At that time, this organisation was under the Culture Division of the Ministry of Education, Teaching and Culture.
In 1952, both organisations were integrated into the Faculty of Literature at the University of Indonesia. The combined organisation was named the Division of Language and Culture. Seven years later, on 1 June 1959, the division was renamed the Division of Language and Literature, and was integrated into the Department of Education, Teaching and Culture.
On 3 November 1966, the division was again renamed to Directorate of Language and Literature under the Directorate General of Culture, which was itself under the Department of Education and Culture. On 27 May 1969, the directorate was renamed to Division of National Language under the same Directorate General.
On 1 April 1975, the LBN was once again renamed to The Centre of Language Learning and Research. Unofficially, the term Pusat Bahasa was used to refer to the PPPB due to its lengthy name.
Due to a presidential order in 2000, the PPPB was officially renamed as the "Language Center", and placed under the Secretariat General of the Department of National Education.
In 2009, the Indonesian government and People's Representative Council passed Law 24/2009 on the Flag, Language, State Symbol and National Anthem. Because of that act and a presidential order, the Language Center was renamed as Language Development and Fostering Agency, and placed under the Ministry of Education and Culture.
As of 30 October 2018 and refer to Presidential Decree No 101/2018, the agency has been renamed as Language and Book Development Agency.
On 2 January 2020, based on Presidential Decree No 82/2019 the agency name reverted back to Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa and book-related affairs was placed under Badan Penelitian dan Pengembangan dan Perbukuan.
On 15 July 2021, the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Ministry of Research and Technology were merged into the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology. The agency was then placed under the new ministry.

Functions

The Language Development and Fostering Agency carries out the following functions:
  1. Formulating technical policies in the field of language and literature development, fostering, and protection;
  2. Implementing language and literature development, fostering, and protection;
  3. Implementing standardization, analysis, evaluation, and reporting in the field of language and literature development, fostering, and protection;
  4. Implementing Agency administration; and
  5. Implementing other functions assigned by the Minister.

    Organizational Structure

The organizational structure of the Language Development and Fostering Agency consists of:
  1. Secretariat of the Language Development and Fostering Agency;
  2. Center for Language and Literature Development and Protection;
  3. Center for Language and Literature Fostering; and
  4. Center for Language and Literature Empowerment.

    Products

  • KBBI
  • Improved Indonesian Spelling
  • , offline software that automatically edits or corrects Indonesian text.
  • PASTI, a site that provides equivalents for terms from various foreign-language fields in Indonesian.
  • Dictionary
  • Dictionary of terms - a special dictionary for basic science fields, including ; applied sciences. This dictionary of terms is a collaboration between the Language Center, experts in the field of science, and the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia Language Council
  • as a source of equivalent words.
  • A language proficiency test called UKBI and the development of teaching materials for BIPA.
  • A Language Bill that will establish three languages in Indonesia: regional languages as mother tongues, Indonesian as the national language, and foreign languages as sources of knowledge. The status of these three languages will be clarified through legislation and their use protected so that they do not overtake or overpower one another.
  • Halo Bahasa - an Android-based Language Agency service application.