The majority of certification agencies have no night diver course, no drysuit course, no ice diver course, no boat diver corse, no lamp-holding diver course. So no, it can't possibly be required. I would say that for most circumstances (confined area, good vis, no deep areas available etc etc as common sense dictates) it is not even remotely necessary.
We usually graduate new divers in mid-June and do our first night dive a couple months (hopefully about 10-15 dives) later.
Then again we don't never to buddy newbies with newbies & then again earlier than that we don't have dark nights
Night dives can be big fun in shallower local lakes & quarries that might be downright boring in daylight. Shallow depth makes people more comfortable, rock faces & any underwater structure look much cooler at night, and fish are hugely less skittish and at many sites you will critters you never/rarely see in daytime (esp. big fish and crayfish).
I would stongly recommend this for a club activity, esp. a end-of-summer event. Offer hot coffee & grill sausages, and note too that many divers underwater with lamps will make a neat photo opportunity.
See also
http://www.diversnight.com/
Everyone, all over the world, let's get underwater at 8:13 PM local time on Nov 7!