Jakarta – Thousands of honoree staff of state schools staged a demonstration in front of the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Monday, causing traffic jams in the area.

The group were protesting against the issuance of an allegedly "discriminative" circular letter by the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reforms Minister on the collection of data on honoree staff at state schools.

The protesters include teachers, librarians, administrative staff members, health workers, laboratory staff members and school guards – hired as honoree staff kompas.com reported.

The group planned to march to the office of the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reforms Minister on Jl. Sudirman, South Jakarta.

Hundreds of police officers were deployed to safeguard the demonstration.