KEYWORDS Dysfunctional Schools. Early Childhood Development. Rural Schools. Social Responsiveness ABSTRACT A dysfunctional early childhood development (ECD) school will have a direct negative effect on the teaching and learning activities of the children attending it on their development. The objective was to determine the needs and challenges of a community school in order to determine what role lecturers at Open Distance Learning (ODL) institutions could play as part of their community engagement in transforming a dysfunctional school into a functional school. Aqualitative research design was applied to obtain answers to the research questions and semi-structured interviews were used to obtain data from four staff members. Findings revealed that the school was indeed dysfunctional due to unqualified and under-qualified teachers. It was concluded that ODL lecturers need to support untrained teachers through ODL teaching and learning strategies in order to become qualified teachers.