I also learned a cursive style of script starting from the 2nd grade. It was not formally mandatory, but in practical means it was. We had to copy tons of text from the black board and because of that we practiced a lot of handwriting.
Gladly, kids here don't have to do it anymore. My younger brothers never learned it.

We were made to learn it in 3rd grade, with the explanation "Once you enter High School, all of your papers will have to be in cursive". Maybe true for the teacher's generation (which would be the same as my parent's, and they both use cursive), but thankfully computers were common enough by then that instead stuff was to be typed. Now, I too can only sign my name in cursive, though I can still read it at least.