How to make an element in XML schema optional?

Try this

<xs:element name="description" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1" />

if you want 0 or 1 “description” elements, Or

<xs:element name="description" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded" />

if you want 0 to infinity number of “description” elements.