Whether with reference to ‘the comments made during the meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education on 3 May 2017 by a certain official (name furnished) that some principals are inflating their matric pass rates by holding back learners, her department has initiated a full –scale investigation into the extent of this problem nationally; if not, why not; if so, what (a) were the findings of the investigation and (b) action has been taken against principals found guilty of the practices knows as gatekeeping or culling to artificially inflate their matric pass rate?