My problem with the scribbling class is that it often views things as if they were coming with labels defining their essence, and it is either unwilling or unable to look beneath those labels.
The passive voice in the above quotation is the telltale sign of this tendency. "Were formulated" by whom? The reality is that different people use the existing social institutions to the ends that suit them - regardless of what the authority figures, "founding patriarchs" or distinguished members of the scribbling class pronounce about these institutions.
The missionaries established schools in Africa to spread their beliefs, colonial authorities saw them as an opportunity to pacify the local population, the local population saw them as an opportunity to learn a few new tricks and kick the white man's butt. Who is to say what was "overtly formulated" about these institutions?
The proof of the pudding is in the eating, not in exhortations about its virtues or vices.
Wojtek