It was a private school for a short period and then became a full public school. This school is funded by tax payers money and education is mostly free on merit.
There was a special allocation even on budget before independence! So it is truly a National School in its full .
As to students more than 50% are on merit like Uni. In fact the white iconic building and old structures around UOC belonged to the school and anybody can see this even now as the foundation stone of this building (1911) state so.
As to the people educated it is diverse like UOC . Anagarika Dharmapala , Gamini jayassoriya, Lalith Atulathmudali , Dr. Gamini Corea , C.G. Weeramantry (ICJ) were all educated from this public school . Similarly there were bad eggs too . This is quite common in any place of education Oxford , Cambridge , Harvard, Cornel, Stanford or Ananda,(GR, Godahewa, Kamal), Nalanda (chandima weerakody), Thurstan (MR, ) . Is it the fault of Ananda , Nalanda or Turstan for wrong actions of these people ? No