In order to maintain a uniform standard of graduate and post graduate teaching throughout the country, the Government of India through its notification in 1988 stated that only those candidates would be considered eligible for a post lecturer, who besides fulfilling the minimum academic qualification for it, also qualify in comprehensive test, National Eligibility Test (NET), to be conducted for the purpose. Accordingly the University Grants Commission (UGC) has been conducting the eligibility Test for lecturership on Humanities and Social Science subjects. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) have been conducting the eligibility test for lecturership in the Science subjects.

UGC simultaneously asked the Govt of the States and Union Territories about their option to conduct their own test or alternatively adopt the UGC- CSIR test. In case they opt to conduct a test equivalent to UGC- CSIR then these should be accreditated by the UGC. In response to this, many States opted to conduct their own test i.e. State Level Eligibility Test (SLET) for lecturers. Similarly a proposal was put forward for constituting the North East State Level Eligibility Test (NESLET) ON 26.6.2000 to conduct such a test for the aspirant candidates of the North Eastern Region. It was subsequently constituted as SLET (NE Region). Its member States at present are Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura, Sikkim and Meghalaya.