South-west school students were given a day off school and teachers were scheduled for training, but a system overload meant most could not log on to the $77 million network.

Opposition education spokesman Martin Dixon labelled the training day as a "debacle".

"Every John Brumby IT project ends in fiasco, failure and massive financial losses," he said.

"Ultranet, myki, HealthSmart, the Integrated Courts Management System and the LEAP database are all John Brumby IT projects which are late, over budget and don't work properly.

"John Brumby's Ultranet IT disaster today has wasted the time of Victorian government school teachers, students and parents."

Education Minister Bronwyn Pike acknowledged there had been problems with the ultranet, but said another pupil-free day would not be scheduled to make up for the time lost yesterday.

It was an embarrassing glitch as south-west principals and assistant principals joined colleagues from around the state in Melbourne for the launch of the system and to participate in an education conference.

A state government initiative, ultranet will ? when working ? allow parents instant access to their child's academic results, classroom resources, assignments and homework.

But with more than 40,000 teachers and principals trying to log on at the same time, the system struggled and many teachers reported problems as they tried to access the network for training.

At Warrnambool College, staff made the best of the glitch, with e-learning leader Greg Twitt providing more theory rather than a practical lesson.

"We've had a little bit of training," he said.

"(Teachers) had an introduction to what it is and have been able to see what it looks like."

Mr Twitt said many teachers were excited about the network, which he said would improve communication between parents and teachers while also giving students better access to resources which have been used in class.

"For example, we'll still be handing students a worksheet in class, but they can then log on at home and have access to that online if they need it," he said.

"It will mean we'll be able to communicate with parents more, they will be able to log on from home and see their children's marks, assignments and teacher comments from home."

He said the system could eventually replace report cards by giving parents much better access to information from teachers about their child's progress and academic performance.

Ultranet will also allow special interest groups within the school, including sporting teams and school council, to have their own page on the network that can only be accessed by authorised school members.

Mr Twitt said the network could also be used by teachers from different schools to collaborate with the potential to share resources.

Ms Pike officially opened the professional development day in Melbourne and said it was important principals had a thorough understanding of the ultranet before it was fully functional by the end of September.

"Parents will have online access to important information about their child's education, including academic progress and attendance records," Ms Pike said.

"The ultranet will connect students, teachers and parents anywhere, anytime and allow the sharing of information to support the progress of every individual student."