FREDERICTON -- New Brunswick's New Democrat leader says he wants to know why some francophone students are travelling on school buses with English students if the government supports separate buses for both groups.

Dominic Cardy says Education Minister Serge Rousselle needs to clarify the use of school buses in two school districts.

Rousselle said he only learned recently that 92 francophone students are travelling on eight anglophone buses in the school districts in the northwest and southeast of the province.

But a spokeswoman with the Education Department later said that there are 92 francophone and anglophone students travelling on buses they're not supposed to be on.

The department says the situation occurs on eight anglophone buses and six francophone buses.

Rousselle says his department is examining options to provide separate transportation.

He says the government's obligation under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is to provide separate French and English education systems and that includes separate school buses.