When I was in grades 7-9 it was mandatory, then elective after that. We didn't flash chips back then (in the late 90's) but I bet they do now.
We mostly did hands on of making circuit boards (acid etch), and soldering all the components together for simple little circuits. I only stayed in electronics until grade 10, but I know they made some pretty cool stuff in grade 11 and 12.
I went on to Study Software Engineering with a minor in Digital Electronics.
In my 5th and final year, I took an electronics class called "Digital Electric Design" which actually turned out to be my only hands-on Electronics course at University. All the EE people were shocked to see me there, as I'd not been in all the same hands-on EE type classes as them for the prior 4 years. (I think we only had Maths in common)
They were more that a little shocked I knew how to use a soldering iron, acid etch bath, multimeter, had the resistor charts memorized etc. etc. Apparently, they'd spend the preceding 4 years learning that at Universtiy which I had learned in high school. (The Australians had learned it in High School too, but my university was majority international students)
They do? None of those I know (high school 2000 - 2005) in Perth did electronics. We had the usual woodworking/metalworking/art/photography electives, plus drama & music, but no electronics. We also had extremely sub-par computing classes, with no option for a T.E.E level (i.e. contributes to your University entrance score) computing class whatsoever.