Raising cattle or teaching kids ?

You all might have heard of the inhuman act of a primary school teacher that lead to the tragic death of a small girl. I was literally shocked by the news - i mean a small child treated in such a cruel way that too by a teacher. Its totally unacceptable.
I personally know some incidences of such cruel acts to young children. The first thing that come to my mind is about a friend of mine in kinder garten. I don't remember his name but he was a really active kid. But he did something really bad - we were not told what it was, and the teacher called him and asked him to put his palm on her desk. She held his hand and took something sharp; i think it was a blade, and threatened to cut off his fingers if he ever repeat what ever he had done..He was terrified at this.. who wont be? He was in a terrible state for a few days after that. But slowly he returned to normal, but never to the active child he originally was.
May be he had understood his mistake and had changed for good, but that was a horrible piece of teaching to a 4-5 year old.
Another such incident is during my school days while i was in 4th or 5th grade. There was a boy who was not a "bright one" according to the school standards and got into trouble quite a lot of times. So naturally the teachers and especially the principal was not very fond of him.
We had to wear shoes as part of our uniform. But one day, this boy came to class wearing chapels. Our principal who has this irritating habit of peeking into class rooms and checking on the students during his rounds caught him and scolded him. He was asked to return home ( his house was near the school) and come back with a letter from his parents.
He came back after the interval, ie after 2 periods, but he still wore the same chapels. But there were spots of blood on this shirt with fresh scars of beating on his arms - his dad's anger to the principal. I dont really know what made this evil man beat his own child for no fault of his. But this boy, he took it rather well, was telling us this with a smile on his face. He was transferred from our school the next year and i don't know what came off him.
He was a really nice kid - the best athlete in our batch and was also exceptionally good in one subject alone - Maths. This alone tells us where he would have reached if given the chance.
These are the incidences of cruelty to children i know of. But ive heard in news that the child star from the famous movie Slumdog Millionaire were beaten by their parents in front of the media. Dont they know that these kids too have feelings?
And ive seen a lot of children in the streets who are beaten up by their parents to beg. Once incident remains as a painful scar in me. Some time ago, while i was going to the Trivandrum Railway station, there was a woman with her child who was barely a year old i guess by the footpath. When i walked passed them she pushed the kid toward me asking her to beg to me. She pushed her so hard that the poor child feel face first on the concrete pavement. I was soo hurt and angry, i just couldnt do anything. I was so angry that i felt like kicking that bitch's face with my shoes.
The sad thing is i dont find any notable difference between this begger in Tvm and the educated asshole with B Ed degree in New Delhi.
If this is the case what is the purpose of education?


SHOCKING NEWS:

Slumdog kid Rubina's father puts her on sale
check out this video from Times of India
(thank you Priya for notifying this)