The Department of Education (DepEd) announced that it has suspended classes in 19 schools this Monday, July 26, the day President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III delivers his first State-of-the-Nation Address (SoNA).

The Division of City Schools in Quezon City decided to suspend classes in 11 elementary schools and eight high schools near the House of Representatives due to Aquino’s SoNA.

Quezon City Schools Division Superintendent Corazon Rubio said schools with no classes on Monday are Batasan Elementary School, Payatas A, B, and C Elementary School, Payatas B Annex Elementary School, San Diego Elementary School, Bagong Silangan Elementary School and High School, Doña Juana Elementary School, Commonwealth Elementary School and High School, Commonwealth Annex, Manuel L. Quezon Elementary School, Culiat Elementary School and High School, New Era Elementary School and High School, Batasan Hills National High School, Justice Cecilia Muñoz Palma High School, Holy Spirit High School, and J.F. Belmonte High School.

Meanwhile, Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC), a 30,000 strong group, will hold today their own SoNA at Plaza Miranda, Quiapo, Manila. Some 100 teachers from Metro Manila will participate in the activity which aims to remind Aquino of the situation of public school teachers.

According to TDC national Chairperson Benjo Basas, Aquino’s 10-point agenda, though generally responsive to the education sector’s needs, “has no mention of teachers’ rights and welfare.”

“We want to challenge the Aquino government instead to act on their own 10-point agenda for teachers and they will expect him to announce good news for them in his first SoNA speech,” he said.

The demands of the sector will be presented through singing of songs with altered lyrics in the tradition of Harana to “please the bachelor president and win his heart.”

TDC Spokesperson Emmalyn Policarpio said that on Thursday, some 100 teacher-leaders from all over Metro Manila also gathered at the DepEd NCR in Quezon City for a  forum-consultation to discuss the Aquino administration’s 10-point education agenda which was initially criticized by the teachers for not having even a single plan item for their welfare.

Policarpio said that the teachers and DepEd officials tackled and deliberated sectoral demands to President Aquino’s government and to the newly appointed DepEd Secretary Bro. Armin Luistro.