  The author's own experience as a student and later as a lecturer in
Afghanistan has shown that the methods used in the educational system are not
only flawed, but also do not provide the minimum guidance to students to select
proper course of study before they enter the national university entrance
(Kankor) exam. Thus, it often results in high attrition rates and poor
performance in higher education.
  Based on the studies done in other countries, and by the author of this paper
through online questionnaires distributed to university students in Afghanistan
- it was found that proper procedures and specialized studies in high schools
can help students in selecting their major field of study more systematically.
  Additionally, it has come to be known that there are large amounts of data
available for mining purposes, but the methods that the Ministry of Education
and Ministry of Higher Education use to store and produce their data, only
enable them to achieve simple facts and figures. Furthermore, from the results
it can be concluded that there are potential opportunities for educational data
mining application in the domain of Afghanistan's education systems. Finally,
this study will provide the readers with approaches for using Educational Data
Mining to improve the educational business processes. For instance, predict
proper field of study for high school graduates, or, identify first year
university students who are at high risk of attrition.
