At the moment in New South Wales, for English/literature, there are four sections to the curriculum, all of them based thematically - one of them is something EVERYONE has to do, but there are about a dozen texts for it, and you only have to read one or two of them. The other three there are two or three modules that each fulfill the requirements, and there are two or three texts for each module - in most cases it'd be something classic like Frankenstein, and something modern like Bladerunner. All of the choices as to what was taught was done by the teachers in the ordinary English classes, so the students got no choice in that regard, even though it was available - teachers prepare their teaching plans in advance, etc.
There were a few requirements that had to be fulfilled, though - in our school, EVERYONE had to read one Shakespeare play a year, minimum. I am someone who really likes reading theatre, I did Drama as an elective, but I cannot fucking stand Shakespeare - I'd much rather read Wilde or Beckett or Stoppard. Part of it is because I'm looking for something particular in theatre (I like things that deconstruct themselves and play with form over sonnets), part of it was because it was shoved down our throats that we had to do Shakespeare and got no choice in the matter.
In extension English, we got to take a vote within classes as to what books we'd read for an entire year. We had a choice between Victorian literature and post WWII-literature - my class was made up mostly of girls, who obviously have a far stronger preference to the former, and so I was stuck reading Austen and Bronte for a year instead of Kerouac and Ionesco. Sadly, I was pretty miserable in that class as a result.
The problem is, at least here, we're taught to memorise all of these textual references and styles within a piece without actually having to really get our teeth into the damned thing, so it got to the point where you could memorise an essay with all of your neat points in order, and it sounds really nice and good and fancy. I made a joke that wouldn't it be awesome if they changed the question to fuck people over.
They did - in the final exam, instead of asking for analysis from three texts, they asked for analysis for only one of three texts, or only two of three texts. People flipped out and wrote their rote learned essays anyways, and the board of education had to come out and say they'd mark those essays anyway.
Fucking cunts.
Maths syllabuses are utterly broken, anyways.
In university contexts this problem is significantly lessened because instead of "analysing" a book for an entire term, you read a book a week, so you get a lot more exposure to different styles, which is a much better approach, I think.
The only "required" reading we had in our university English classes was texts written by the lecturer of the course, which I regarded in disgust - that's a really ethically shitty thing to do in a course about fiction, I think, both in profiteering and developing analytical skills.
That said, most people will just use online guides, you're right - there's a pretty distinct difference between people looking to get an education in a particular course, and people using it to get credits to get their diploma and get out.