The Private Medical College Parents' Society  (PMCPS) has said that expecting SAITM graduates to sit the Examination for Registration to Practice Medicine (ERPM) – formerly known as Act 16 – would be a violation of human rights.

At a press conference at the BMICH this morning, the PMCPS charged the ERPM, conducted by the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC), in conjunction with the University Grants Commission (UGC), was relevant only to foreign students wanting to practice in Sri Lanka.

P. M. B. K. Tennekoon, President of the Private Medical College Parents' Society also rejected allegations that SAITM was a ‘hora upadi kade’, saying that parents had chosen SAITM because the degree there was far superior to state-universities.

 “It is to give their children a better future that SAITM was chosen,” he said, “not because these students had failed their ALs. Parents and students who can afford to pay for private education should not be prevented from doing so,” he further alleged.