Child care in Greenland
In Greenland, day-care centres are mainly run by the municipality. You should therefore contact your local municipality to find out about day-care services, how to enrol or disenroll your child, and how to pay for the services.
Day-care centres
In Greenland, you have the opportunity to have your preschool child looked after during the daytime. Various kinds of preschool care are available:
- Nursery for children aged 0-2 years
- Child-minding for children aged 0-6 years
- Kindergarten (public or private) for children aged 3-6 years
- Playgroups for children aged 0-6 years
- Child-minding centres in villages, for children aged 0-6 years
The services that are available depend on the age of your child and the town in which you live. Not all services are available in all towns and villages. More information is available from Sullissivik (Public Service) or from the local Citizen Service Centre or village office.
If you wish to enrol your child in a day-care centre or place him or her on the waiting list, you can do so online at Sullissivik (Public Service) or at the local Citizens’ Service Centre or village office. The same applies if you wish to disenroll your child from day care.
In some cases, you have the opportunity to place the child on a waiting list before moving to Greenland. How early you can place a child on a waiting list varies from municipality to municipality, so check the local rules at Sullissivik (Public Service).
As a parent, you can state a preferred day-care centre for your child to start in, but there is no guarantee that this can be met. If you are allocated a place in a day-care centre other than your preferred one, some municipalities give you the opportunity to apply to swap places with someone else.
When your child is enrolled in a nursery or child-minding, you will automatically be offered a kindergarten place once your child is old enough to attend it. Please note that there may be a waiting list for a place in a day-care centre.
If your child already attends a nursery or is in child-minding, you will automatically be offered a kindergarten place once your child is old enough to attend it. There may be a waiting list for both nursery and kindergarten places, and in some towns the waiting time may be up to a year.
In addition to the municipal day-care centres, there are also a few private day-care centres in Nuuk. It can be a good idea to put your child on the waiting list for both public and private day-care centres, as the waiting time may be protracted for both of these.
You can place your child on the waiting list for a private day-care centre as soon as you plan to move to Greenland. For more information, see the web pages of the individual institutions.
Child-minding
If you choose child-minding for your child, your child will be cared for by a child minder in a private home. Child minders look after up to four children (and in some cases five) aged 0-6 years. Child-minding is part of the municipality’s day-care services, on a par with nurseries and kindergartens, and child-minders must therefore abide by the same requirements and rules as the childcare institutions.
Prices
It is the municipality that sets the price of pre-school child care. The price depends partly on the family’s income, and partly on the number of children in the family who attend a child care institution in the municipality.
If the family’s situation changes, for example in the case of divorce, a new job or enrolment in a study programme, the price of the child’s day care will also change. You are required to notify the municipality if your situation changes.
Please fill in our contact form if you have any questions or if you have encountered an obstacle in another Nordic country.
NB! If you have questions regarding the processing of a specific case or application, or other personal matters, please contact the relevant authority directly.
