The foundation of the National Institute for Public Education (OKI) in 1990 was part of the democratic transformation of Hungarian public education. A new national institute came about, involved in research, development and services in the field of public education, with responsibilities determined by the ever changing needs of a diverse, multi-player system of public education. The governments that founded and maintained OKI expected assistance in the modernisation process of an increasingly pluralistic Hungarian public education and professional support – both to the educational administration working on the improvement of public education and to those on the institutional and local levels working on the innovation of public education.