As a British colony from 1899 to 1956, there was not much effort on the part of the imperial power to establish schools. Catholic and Protestant missionaries provided limited schooling. However, these schools were taught in the vernacular which did not help children become permanently literate. After Sudan's independence in 1956, the ineffective church-run schools were shut down in a wave of Islamisation. New nationalized schools were created, and schools used Arabic instead of local languages. The new schools were also inaccessible to most of the population. The educational opportunities became even more dismal once the civil war broke out. The on-and-off civil warfare devastated educational prospects for generations of Sudanese, due to high costs, lack of buildings, and insecurity.