My UK experience is similar to yours. I don't think that the cynical view is needed: it was probably assumed that you'd learn what you needed to of 'civics' by osmosis, eg down the pub before an election...
We learnt a lot about the Romans and Viking, which I found interesting. But why was that more important than civics?
Also, osmosis is a crap way to learn a complex topic IMO. I think if you ask UK people basic civics questions (such as 'does the UK have a written constitution' or 'what are the rights of asylum seekers') the majority won't know. And this means that political discourse is at a much lower level than it could be.
