About 28 percent of South African school pupils and their parents worry about bullying, a survey has shown.

"The relatively high incidence of bullying shows that there is a real problem in many schools, and this clearly needs to be tackled head on," researchers said.

The survey was conducted by Pondering Panda among 5183 pupils and their parents via cellphone.

It found that 38 percent of white pupils listed bullying as a concern, compared to only 24 percent of black pupils.

Just over a fifth considered a lack of parental involvement in schooling a problem, indicating that parents could not "simply leave it to teachers".

Just over a quarter of respondents believed there were not enough decent toilets and a similar proportion thought there were too many pupils per classroom.

"Overcrowding in classes, as well as not enough decent toilets, points to the need for a significant investment in upgrading school infrastructure," said spokesman Butch Rice.

Limpopo pupils and parents were six percent more likely to perceive teachers being late for class as a problem than the national average of 11 percent.

Thirteen percent of black respondents were concerned about this, compared to seven percent of white respondents.