Education Minister James Merlino announced this week that teachers will be offered up to $50,000 to relocate to regional and rural areas such as the Wimmera under a plan aimed at improving outcomes for country students.

In all, $12.5 million of an $82.8 million total investment will be offered to both primary and secondary teachers to move to country centres that are traditionally hard-to-staff - usually small, rural communities, but sometimes also in specialist roles such as science and mathematics in larger Victorian towns.

READ MORE: Up to $50,000 from the government for teachers to move to regional and rural areas

It also includes assistance with housing, plus a retention payment of up to $9000 a year for three years if the teacher remains in their role.

A further $12.8 million will be offered to secure teachers who specialise in VET and VCAL to give access to more apprenticeships and traineeships while a further $3.7 million will help abolish enrolment fees for Virtual School Victoria, saving about 4400 parents $160 fees for the cost of their children accessing virtual learning.

Education Minister James Merlino said there would be a further $59.9 million to double internet speeds at government schools across Victoria.

He said the announcements were the first step in addressing the Expert Advisory Panel into Rural and Regional Students' eight recommendations. The panel visited Horsham in July to hear from educators about the Wimmera's unique needs.

Stawell Secondary College principal Carlos Lopez said providing compensation for regional teachers was "long overdue".

"The main struggles young teachers had under the old scheme was that they had no support for relocation," he said.

"There are challenges with education, as well as the social aspect of moving to a regional area. I think money would definitely attract more teachers; it's a pity that there hasn't been something like this before. Having incentives for young, educated people to stay in regional areas will help revitalise dwindling populations."

Mr Lopez was Horsham College's assistant principal for six years and has also worked at one of Victoria's smallest secondary schools, Murrayville Community College. He said the positives of working in regional areas outweighed the negatives.

"There are lots of challenges for teachers in rural schools, but for graduates or early career teachers there are lots of benefits too," he said. "There are more leadership and skill developing opportunities."

Halls Gap Primary School principal Ja-San Trimble said the school struggled to get teachers.

"When we advertise positions, we're not inundated with applications. When we do, it's mostly graduates. Experienced teachers aren't interested in moving around," she said. "I can see how the incentive of money might attract some experienced teachers to regional areas, but I would also be wary that people would just take up positions for the money."

Mrs Trimble said the school had four teachers, including herself. The three other teachers are all graduates.

"In a small school you have to do a bit of everything; it's fantastic experience because they're thrown into the deep end," she said. "You do need experienced teachers to provide the support and mentorship for younger teachers. Two of our teachers are locals who have come back to the region after studying, so we rely on locals to come back."

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Halls Gap Primary School classroom teacher Karina Wilkinson grew up in Halls Gap, attended the school and secured her first teaching job at the school. She said she would have considered taking up the incentive herself if she wasn't already employed.

"Hopefully it will bring people out to regional areas and see what happens in a rural school," she said.

Horsham College teacher Rosemary Lloyd moved from Melbourne to Horsham at the start of 2019 as part of the Teach For Australia program.

As part of the program, Ms Lloyd will teach at the school with full salary and benefits while receiving one-on-one mentoring for the next two years. Ms Lloyd said the offer of extra money would probably be more attractive to established teachers rather than graduates.

"What attracted me to this role was the ability to become a teacher through that support and ongoing full-time employment. So I guess money was a consideration for me too, but in a slightly different way," she said.

"I think you do need to encourage people studying teaching to take that leap, because when you're in Melbourne you might not think about the ways in which it's easier living regionally and the options available to you."

Wimmera Southern Mallee Regional Partnership chairman David Jochinke said the state government funding, announced across Wednesday and Thursday, needed to be accompanied by investment in incentives to retain the region's current teacher base.

"It doesn't just have to be money, either. It can be things such as making teachers' jobs a lot easier and giving them good support networks ... things like having access to good facilities, good equipment and good resources for students or personal development opportunities so they can be the best they can," he said.

Mr Jochinke said teachers did more than just teach in rural areas.

"They are also part of the community fabric and witness the trials and tribulations students face at home - whether that be disadvantage issues or other life circumstances," he said. "The partnership is closely involved in education in the Wimmera. A lot of the work we've done has been through the Wimmera Southern Mallee Early Years Project - also called By Five - which has been about utilising the resources of the area.

"We have clusters of schools working on a specific area they need strengthening in, and they've been given the local authority to determine how they want to achieve it."

Wimmera Development Association executive director Chris Sounness welcomed the announcement. He said it was up to his organisation and Wimmera communities to create the environments in which teachers would want to stay.