Any credit or discredit for setting up a private medical school in Sri Lanka should be attributed to me, Minister S.B. Dissanayake said. 

The former Higher Education Minister of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government said he decided to allow the setting up of a private medical college to support hundreds of thousands of students to fail to enter the state universities. 

"Nearly 150000 students who pass the GCE AL examination do not become eligible to enter into state universities due to lack of resources. About 20000 of them manage to pursue their higher education overseas. My intention is to help those who get left out without an option," he explained addressing a public event in Colombo. 

He said the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and the Frontline Socialist Party were behind the protests against private education. 

"But, I know, children of some of the JVP MPs study in private universities." 

The Minister said the doctors of the GMOA earn nearly Rs. 500,000 a day be selling their professional knowledge to patients. 

"If they can earn money by selling the knowledge they gathered at the expense of the state, how can they oppose private education in Sri Lanka," the Minister queried.