While the academic literature is replete with affirming that ‘values-explicit’
citizenship education programs are biased and indoctrinatory, there is scant
attention to substantiate this claim. The present paper fills this gap; it investigates
the values education notion informing Itorero, a non-formal citizenship education
platform for high school leavers (HSLs) in post-genocide Rwanda. The research
reported here used a survey questionnaire, focus groups and interviews. The article
engages with character education, care ethics, cognitive moral development and
values clarification approaches to highlight the values education notion deemed
preferable to competing concepts. It is revealed that in educating HSLs for values,
Itorero is vehemently committed to character education. I argue that the overreliance
on this approach raises serious concerns particularly because values education
as it is done in Itorero seems like the cultivation of supportive behavior towards
the government in office. Its content focuses on understanding what the government
wants and the crafting of dispositions required for the implementation of defined
policies.

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• While the academic literature is replete with affirming that ‘values-explicit’ citizenship education programs are biased and indoctrinatory, there is scant attention to substantiate this claim. The present paper fills this gap; it investigates the values e