Almost 1,000 pupils started the school year at Nuuk’s new Atuarfik Inussuk school on August 17, 2026, more than two years after construction faults left the building empty.
DR reports that the first school day at Inussuk Skole, in the heart of Nuuk, went ahead on Monday. Nearly 1,000 pupils took their seats in classrooms that had stood unused for years. Several children brought flags, and first-graders arrived in festive clothes.
According to DR, the project was announced in 2019 and ground was broken in 2020. The 634 million kroner school was built to replace two older schools that had been hit by mould. Many in the Greenlandic capital view the opening as something close to a miracle after the standstill.
The Greenlandic outlets KNR and Sermitsiaq had earlier reported that frost shifted the foundation by several centimeters, and that joints in the concrete took in moisture, as summarized by DR. Documentation of fire safety then became the main obstacle. The municipality could not defend sending roughly 1,000 pupils into the building, which had been formally inaugurated in 2023.
While the school stood empty, those pupils were distributed across a series of more or less improvised premises around the city, DR reports. The municipality Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq stated in August 2024 that the school was not ready because the complex fire alarm system and fire-technical documentation were not in place. Pupils were instead sent to Atuarfik Samuel Kleinschmidt and Atuarfik Ukaliusaq.
In a status update from December 2024, the municipality said the fire-safety strategy still had not been approved. An external fire consultant had been engaged, and a revised strategy was expected from the total contractor Ístak. The municipality then aimed to bring the school into use during 2025.
That target also slipped. A municipal notice from July 2025 said all Inussuk pupils would again begin the school year in temporary locations, because fire approval for the new buildings was missing. The English-language outlet GreenlandReview reported in June 2025 that the school remained empty despite its cost.
What made the opening possible
The Icelandic contractor Ístak announced in 2025 that it had reached an agreement with Nuuk’s municipal authorities. The company said the agreement would secure the opening of Greenland’s largest school in the autumn of 2026, after extensive work on fire safety and evacuation procedures.
The damage has since been repaired, and sprinklers have been installed to prevent fire accidents, DR reports. Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq had listed August 17 as the general start date for Nuuk’s city schools. In Greenland, the school’s name, Inussuk, means cairn, the stone piles used as landmarks in nature.
The facade is decorated with motifs of snow hares, reindeer and other Arctic animals, according to DR. Pupils and teachers take off their boots when entering the building. For many of the new first-graders, those were kamik boots.
