How much is a spelling mistake worth?

As Carina Farreras has been reporting in the Society section, this year's university entrance exams (PAU) are causing problems due to changes in the criteria for deducting points for spelling, punctuation, or grammar mistakes. The fact that points are deducted for errors of this type in language exams seems obvious, although the value given to each error is always debatable. How much is a spelling mistake worth? A tenth of a point? More? Less?

Everything gets complicated when this criterion is applied to non-language subjects. It seems that teachers who will mark the sections of exams corresponding to subjects traditionally known as humanities or literature will apply the criteria required of them. However, in science exams, some teachers argue that they lack the academic skills to adequately mark the section that addresses spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors.

Some science teachers claim they do not have the academic skills to correct the language.

(A parenthesis: spelling mistakes are those that affect the misspelling of a word, due to a confused letter or an extra or missing accent. That is, writing jinebra instead of ginebra is a spelling mistake. A punctuation mistake refers to a misplaced comma, for example, between subject and verb: “The shop owner arrived late,” a sentence where the comma shouldn't be. And a grammatical mistake can be the incorrect use of verb tenses, the lack of agreement between subject and verb, or the mixing of singular and plural or masculine and feminine.)

That some science teachers wash their hands of language issues is no longer surprising, but it should make us reflect. Because language, even though it's just another subject, is the subject, the one that enables everyone to communicate, the one that allows a science teacher or a primary school teacher to teach students the knowledge relevant to the subjects they teach.

In all this confusion, the improvisation on the part of the regional ministry is worrying, because future university students are risking a large part of their academic and professional journey, which they are now embarking on. Clear and precise rules are needed, so that each speller applies the same criteria, to avoid the notion that every teacher has his own little book. But the real debate, the one hidden behind all this smoke, is: can a student enter university with spelling mistakes?